Buying NSFW games on itch.io? Paypal may Nuke your account!
from throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to tech@programming.dev on 21 Aug 16:14
https://lemmy.nz/post/27143972

a reddit user shared their story

Just woke up to an Email from PayPal stating that my account was permanently limited, thinking it’s a scam I check and lo and behold: I was limited.

But what had I done? Well my only purchases using PayPal were through Itch.io, that’s the only thing I use it for.

It seems I was limited for breaking “the policies of our partners” mentioned in the first paragraph of the notice. It’s no secret that PayPal are quite close with Mastercard and Visa, who have been pushing hardest for this porn ban (sorry, specifically the NSFW Games sphere).

So this is a PSA: if you’re using your PayPal account for anything else, don’t use it for Itch.

#tech

threaded - newest

breadsmasher@lemmy.world on 21 Aug 16:31 next collapse

PSA is wrong.

Correct PSA is

Stop using Paypal ffs

TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works on 21 Aug 16:40 collapse

What do you recommend as an intermediary between banks and people, who can’t use crypto?

zammy95@lemmy.world on 21 Aug 16:43 next collapse

I’ve used zelle for years, it’s built into every bank app I own and goes directly from my bank to my friends banks. I thought PayPal and Venmo and all that was just used for buying strangers feet pics or whatever nowadays

TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works on 21 Aug 16:50 next collapse

I’ve never heard of that. Is that a European thing?

pelespirit@sh.itjust.works on 21 Aug 17:01 next collapse

zelle is an immediate transfer from a bank to another person’s bank. It’s had some issues with fraud and scams, but I’ve never had an issue personally. It’s in the US and maybe abroad too, idk.

dogs0n@sh.itjust.works on 21 Aug 17:43 next collapse

Looks like it’s only in the US.

Can I use Zelle® internationally?

In order to use Zelle®, the sender and recipient must have U.S. bank accounts.

zellepay.com/…/can-i-use-zelle-internationally

pillowtags@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 21 Aug 21:59 collapse

Afaik the scams mostly involve people being convinced to zelle money to strangers, which is a non reversible process.

zammy95@lemmy.world on 21 Aug 17:56 next collapse

Nope, I’m from Pennsylvania lol

CluckN@lemmy.world on 21 Aug 18:05 collapse

I’ve never heard of Pennsylvania. Is that a European thing?

violetsoftness@piefed.blahaj.zone on 21 Aug 18:34 collapse

yes! a british colony from 1681 named after the european religious extremist and slaver William Penn. After eradicating most of the natives with european diseases they stirred shit for 100 years before throwing in with a bunch of other rich white slavers in a complex tax avoidance scheme called The United States.

<img alt="" src="https://piefed.cdn.blahaj.zone/posts/Xr/FZ/XrFZ6BqUeGcOPbg.jpeg">

grue@lemmy.world on 21 Aug 18:46 collapse

No, it’s a US giant-monster-mega-bank thing.

Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip on 22 Aug 14:05 collapse

Unfortunately, Not available with many credit unions.

eatham@aussie.zone on 21 Aug 21:37 next collapse

Why do you need an intermediary, you can use bank transfers and cards.

baguettefish@discuss.tchncs.de on 22 Aug 08:26 collapse

paypal has a more robust chargeback mechanic and is also more widely supported by the world than a swift bank account. it also handles metadata and checking who you’re paying/getting paid from better than a swift bank account. there are definitely benefits to it, even if it’s financial hell on earth. just recently i managed to do a full chargeback for something expensive, after the seller didn’t give me my money back after sending the item back within the 14 days and the item also being defective. the seller was fully uncooperative, but paypal managed to claw the money back. I’d call that a win. I also find it weird how if a company has your bank or credit card details it’s trivially easy for them to falsely charge you. That’s insane. I know a chargeback is similarly easy, but still. Having a way to make sure to only allow charges with specific intent on your part is amazing.

(i don’t use credit cards, the closest i am to debit cards is using google pay. stores here usually support credit and debit cards, yes, but also checking accounts using the aforementioned swift system.)

explodicle@sh.itjust.works on 22 Aug 16:20 collapse

Why can’t they use crypto?

TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works on 22 Aug 16:23 next collapse

There’s a high barrier to entry and most shops don’t accept it. I support crypto becoming mainstream and simple to use, but it’s not there yet.

ulterno@programming.dev on 22 Aug 18:19 collapse

The grocer down the street won’t take crypto.
Even for using UPI (United Payments Interface, essentially state sponsored net-banking app on mobile), they ask me to send to one of their friend’s device, because they don’t have enough money to buy a smartphone.

Now, who is going to give me cash (which I need to be able to eat) for crypto without taking an exorbitant cut?


The chain outlets for groceries of course don’t take crypto.


If you want this to match the context, then assume I made the NSFW game you wanted and instead of buying off of Steam, you came to me to buy it and want to pay with crypto.

SoupBrick@pawb.social on 21 Aug 16:50 next collapse

<img alt="" src="https://pawb.social/pictrs/image/4665b66d-c773-42e9-b39d-3acce62f0991.jpeg">

<img alt="" src="https://pawb.social/pictrs/image/ddecefa4-cc4b-4275-93b4-5ba4f4e80efb.jpeg">

andioop@programming.dev on 21 Aug 23:02 next collapse
lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com on 22 Aug 12:58 collapse

Bruh, these images of text are tiny AF & lack alt text: ain’t reading that.

Real text or links to pages of real text would be way more effective.

Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 21 Aug 16:52 next collapse

the policies of our partners

Lol I couldn’t care less about the policies of a handful of pathetic old women, disconnected from reality, who live 17,000km away from me. I’ll not have some crackpot old fools dictate my life. Their sphere of influence should never have extended past their little congregation.

fruitcantfly@programming.dev on 21 Aug 17:32 next collapse

Source is old.reddit.com/…/buying_nsfw_games_on_itchio_payp…

j4k3@lemmy.world on 21 Aug 18:01 next collapse

Anyone with scientific skepticism has no right to enjoy the fruits of technology, or dictate any of their backwards conflicted masochistic cultural norms. They belong under the rock they crawled out from under.

fruitcantfly@programming.dev on 21 Aug 22:16 collapse

Wouldn’t scientists be the ones employing “scientific skepticism”?

andioop@programming.dev on 21 Aug 22:52 next collapse

A quick search of the phrase brings up more the “make sure the science done is credible and that you did not massage your data to end up with a specific result” type of skepticism, but I’m guessing the person you replied to meant the type of person who says vaccines do not work and they are just skeptical of all this science stuff in general.

j4k3@lemmy.world on 21 Aug 22:55 collapse

No scientists are skeptical of all of science, so no. Skepticism is part of the scientific process, but that is totally unrelated to skepticism about the validity of the scientific method of rigorous documentation, observation, and unbiased repeatability by humans that are demonstrably the best and brightest among us. Scientific skepticism is really the plague of ignorant narcissism, the self aggrandizement of crackpots, and the populist fools that follow them.

fruitcantfly@programming.dev on 22 Aug 06:22 next collapse

What you are describing is something I would label “skepticism of science”, rather than “scientific skepticism”.

So out of curiosity, I did a bit of digging. As andioop mentioned, the term “scientific skepticism” has been used to denote a scientifically minded skepticism for a long time. For example, the Wikipedia article on Scientific Skepticism dates back to 2004 and uses this meaning. Similarly the well known skeptic (pro-science/anti-pseudoscience) wiki, RationalWiki, has linked the scientific method and “scientific skepticism” as far back as 2011, and currently straight up equates skepticism with scientific skepticism. You can also find famous skeptics like Michael Shermer using the term back in the early 2000s, in his case in his ‘The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience’, published in 2002. It was also used in papers such as this sociology paper by Owen-Smith, 2001. This is the meaning of the term that I am familiar with.

However, since about 2020, there has been more of the term “scientific skepticism” as a parallel to “climate skepticism” and “vaccine skepticism”. For example, this paper by Ponce de Leon et al is just one of many I could find via a quick Google Scholar search. This, I take it, is how you use the term.

Personally, I’m probably just gonna keep using “scientific skepticism” to mean “scientifically minded skepticism”, but will keep in mind that it can also mean “skepticism of science”

[deleted] on 22 Aug 07:13 next collapse

.

sukhmel@programming.dev on 22 Aug 08:37 collapse

Oh, it’s this ‘let’s call absolutely different things or even polar opposites the same name’ trope again, I hate it. Thanks for digging it up and informing us

lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com on 22 Aug 13:05 collapse

That’s better called scientific denialism. Scientific skepticism is known to mean something else & will lead to confusion.

user224@lemmy.sdf.org on 21 Aug 20:28 next collapse

Isn’t PayPal kind of known to find any reason to at least freeze your account?

I stopped using them even for card payments when they shadow banned me (always redirected to “We’re sorry…” error page), probably for using single-use virtual cards. Their support simply told them that’s not supported (even though it worked).
People on Discogs where I wanted to pay basically told me “Just open a PayPal account, bro.”, so I contacted the seller to cancel my order and deleted my account.

Crozekiel@lemmy.zip on 21 Aug 23:24 collapse

Yes. Their business model is basically stealing money from people that use their service over and over, eventually getting taken to court and strike a settlement for pennies on the dollar.

They have been known to just go empty out attached accounts. They will definitely take any money left in a PayPal “account”.
They will freeze your account and refuse any appeals.

Do not use PayPal. For anything. Ever. As far as regulation and protections go, you have none. They are not a bank. Legally speaking (ianal) giving them money and expecting it back (or given to who it is supposed to go to) is the same as giving money to some bloke named Dave down the street and expecting the same.

Deathgl0be@lemmy.world on 22 Aug 01:29 next collapse

I just deleted my PayPal I’ve had since 2012 fuck these shit heads. We need some alternative payment system or away to cut these middle man’s

Luffy879@lemmy.ml on 22 Aug 07:06 collapse

Its called monero and Wero.

Deathgl0be@lemmy.world on 22 Aug 12:37 collapse

Wero isn’t here in the states. And crypto is a required disclosure on tax forms.

explodicle@sh.itjust.works on 22 Aug 16:17 collapse

You just have to disclose that you’ve used it, not how much or who you paid.

devilish666@lemmy.world on 22 Aug 12:57 collapse

Gladly i stop using paypal before 2012 because some shit happened to me.