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Paypal Restores Account of BitTorrent Friendly VPN

paypalThree weeks ago Paypal decided to freeze the account of TorGuard, a company that offers VPN and proxy services.

According to a Paypal representative the VPN service violated “some agreements” because of TorGuard’s affiliation with BitTorrent.

Even after the owner explained that his company was just offering a VPN connection, Paypal didn’t change their decision.

However, 48 hours after we made the news public, Paypal has decided that it was all a mistake. TorGuard’s account is restored and thousands of dollars in funds are unfrozen.

—-
Hello TorGuard.net,

Our review is complete and we have restored your account.

We appreciate your patience and thank you for your help in making PayPal
the safest and most trusted online payment solution.

Thanks,

PayPal
—

TorGuard is happy to be back with Paypal, even though they had to be outed before taking action.

“I’m amazed at how unprofessionally paypal handled this entire process,” TorGuard’s Jason told TorrentFreak. “Hopefully now we can get down to business as usual!”.

—

Disclaimer: TorGuard is one of TorrentFreak’s sponsors.

This post is from the News Bits section of TorrentFreak where we present stories from around the web in a concise summary format. Full TorrentFreak articles can be found here. If you have a tip please let us know. News Bits have their very own RSS feed
  • http://www.twitter.com/echoman74 echoman

    I think TF should pat themselves on the back aswell for bringing the story out, haha.

    • Hogspace

      AOLThough I still prefer the idea of an internet wide boycott of paypal  :o)

      • http://www.twitter.com/echoman74 echoman

        true lol remember what happened to godaddy lmao that was awesome :)

        • Latecia

           well first the removed 1500 – 2000 child model sites and people still supported them even though no one said to remove the sites, people don’t learn histroy, then they supported sopa or some shit looooooong time later, and then ppl said, wait i’m not supporting go daddy anymore. It was too late by that time. I told them fuck you years ago when they pulled the child model sites offline, everyone else was late…

        • Sick

          I would question the mental competence of anyone who used GoDaddy before, let alone, after the SOPA debacle.

        • http://www.twitter.com/echoman74 echoman

          True that.

      • Lethn

         I think this kind of thing just proves that we need to make our currencies as independent from any organisation or individual as possible.

  • Anon

    I guess TorGuard will use another payment processor :) bitcoins any1??

    • Guest

       They already accept bitcoins.

    • ????? ??????????

      BitCoin is an unregulated currency backed by literally nothing. It is a BAD idea to use it for business.

      • Guest

        Shut up guardian of status quo.

        • ????? ??????????

          Typical ad hominem from leftists.

      • Mcgravier

        It just comes down to the question: Who do I trust more – banks/goverment or SHA-256 Encryption?

        • ????? ??????????

          And you DO understand that instability of the unregulated currency may wipe your posessions completely in seconds, right?

          Tech literacy != economic literacy.

      • Lee

        As opposed to the Euro, which is backed by the full faith and credit of Greece.  (thing chain, strength and weakest link) Not that the US Dollar is much better standing.  No currency is backed by anything more than promises.  And all can crash.  Even the Germans have had it happen…

        • ????? ??????????

          Nope. ECB is backed by European governments. BC is backed by NO ONE.

      • Joe

        LOL, just like every other currency…

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Don/100002144546465 John Don

        Typical paranoia and disinformation from biocultural conservative.

      • chrisfrd

         That would be a bad business decision – Bitcoin is VERY safe.  We use it DAILY to process about 4000-5000 bux worth of inventory.  Very handy indeed.

        We buy components using it, manufacture and sell using BTC.

        Additionally – it’s VERY WELL regulated.  It’s just not GOVERNMENT regulated.  For us it means we save approximately 35% in TAX!

  • Haploc

    Dear Paypal, so how about the Wikileaks account? Or did I miss some news regarding that lately?

  • Gkblah

    Grow the fuck up paypal, did you miss Mama?

  • Pingback: Paypal Restores Account of BitTorrent Friendly VPN | OccuWorld

  • http://twitter.com/Mathew30 Mathew Lisett

    ” I’m amazed at how unprofessionally paypal handled this entire process,” trust me many buyers and sellers are not shocked at this at all, it happens all the time and theres near to no chance of recovery for most

  • ACTA_FOOL

    “Paypal has decided that it was all a mistake.”  

    LMAO

    See what happens when you makes things like this go public they fear people will leave their company.  We should be boycotting the movie industry and music and maybe this whole copyright cyber war will end for good!  We as consumers under estimate our powers we have.

    • Guest

      I would certainly bet that if TorrentFreak or TORguard not argued against the decision etc. that PayPal would not have reinstated the account and that PayPal would clearly state that there was NO mistake in cancelling the account.

      Well done to TorrentFreak for running a story and shame on you PayPayl for cancelling the account in the first place.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000670351269 Drew Peterson

    Take your money out of Paypal now.

  • http://twitter.com/Anime4PSP Anime 4 PSP

    paypal got scared of losing case in court if TorGuard had taken it to the court.

    • Sick

      Are you ignorant or just stupid? PayPal has the legal right to discontinue service to anyone for any reason, they don’t need to process a company’s payments… what is so hard for everyone to understand about this? THERE IS NO LAW that PayPal would have broken had they discontinued the account of this, or any other company.

      • http://twitter.com/Anime4PSP Anime 4 PSP

        I think you’re the one who is being ignorant dude.

        • Sick

           Says the guy who misuses the word ignorant. LOL, wow.

        • Deutschebag

          But Paypal didn’t steal any money…

        • http://twitter.com/Anime4PSP Anime 4 PSP

          Payshit frozen their acc at their whim. TorGuard couldn’t get their money out of payshit even if they wanted to. Payshit is no court to freeze ppl’s assets. Pretty much same as stealing.

        • Deutschebag

          But court probably wouldn’t see it that way.  That’s the point.

        • Conan B.

          Except that Paypal has a financial motivation to act the way it did, the longer the money remains in limbo, the more interest it collects. If their decision stood, as the story reported, the funds would only be refunded after the customers requested it and it went thru their BS hoops. This action would act as a microloan upon which they would profit from. If everything went normally, the merchant would collect a small amount of interest.
          The argument could be made that Paypal’s action was made in bad faith and punitive damages could be sought. In the end I’d expect that they would settle, pay into some legal defense fund some small amount and change their policy to automatically refund once a merchant sought an appeal/review and lost.

          The threat is that the merchant and customer were both harmed in this case and I expect this isn’t the only time it’s happened. While I would like to see a class action threaten the company to shake things up since I have my personal opinions of the company, it would make them quickly settle and change policy. Any law firm representing would take that settlement and run; class action suits rarely benefit the individuals these days.

        • John Spartan

          Paypal may not be a bank and therefore not governed by banking laws, but it is NOT LAWLESS. In-order for Paypal to interact with your bank account it has to agree to follow certain regulations in countries where it operates, if it starts taking your money and then not deliver the services it has promised then Countries could start denying Paypal the right to operate in those Countries.

          Paypal is a registered company in Nebraska, USA. The local attorney generals office gets thousands of complaints about Paypal. They even have a specific division for dealing with paypal, even if you don’t live in the US your best bet is to contact them.
          http://www.ago.ne.gov/consumer_protection

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Don/100002144546465 John Don

        It’s just too bad–though not from the standpoint of a (bio)culturally conservative ideological agenda–that they would use their ‘legal rights’ to politicize their business practices.

  • http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/ SJD

    Twitting sometimes makes a difference ;) 
    https://twitter.com/fightcopytrolls/status/216289349053059072

    • Danny

      The problem with twitter is that everyone on there sounds like a twit.

      • Anyone

        twitter: between twat and shitter

  • PigPal

    I still won’t resume using Paypal. Their action against numerous other websites including but not limited to Wikileaks just confirms that they are complete scum and a threat to an open internet. Plus their service just plain sucks.

  • The guy

    “thank you for your help in making PayPalthe safest and most trusted online payment solution.”
    Safest and most trusted? I call bullshit.

    • Wergaeh

       trusted my arse, I bought a printer on eBay for £35 paid by PayPal and it never arrived, put in a claim with and had a refund £8.25 when I asked PayPal, their reply was “that was all there was in the account” so much for PayPal guaranteeing to refund your cash

  • ACTA_FOOL

    Canadian Copyright Bill C-11 passes House of Commons and Senate

    http://www.barrysookman.com/2012/06/26/copyright-bill-c-11-passes-third-reading-in-house-of-commons/

    “Earlier this evening, June 26, 2012, the Bill was passed by the Senate.
    The Senate went in camera to discuss its report which may include
    observations. Before coming into force, the Bill will go through an order-in-council process.”

  • Guest

    TorGuard so use this as a lesson that money in a Paypal account is never safe. Always take out and/or transfer money from a Paypal account to some other account as soon as possible.
    Paypal decisions are completely arbitrary and they may re-ban TorGuard account at any time.
    Its time for people to say NO to Paypal

  • Pingback: Torrent News » Paypal Restaure le compte de Torguard (BitTorrent Friendly VPN )

  • Anonymous

    if i were involved with the operation or anything else to do with TorGuard, i would be withdrawing all the funds from paypal and telling them to kiss my arse as i left. finding a new payment option would be my number one priority!

    • Anon

      As much as I hate Paypal it is so easy for buyers. What the sellers should do is never leave any substantial sums of money in their Paypal accounts. I’ve been looking into bitcoins I really can’t see that becoming mainstream.

  • Chilly Willy

    You gotta wonder what next? Freeze the account of someone becuase their VPN or proxy is used to bypass workplace firewalls? 

    If there is ever a read push to outlaw VPN, it will come from corporate network admins.

  • Deutschebag

    Hmm, bullshit.  Why did PayPal suddenly reverse their position?

  • The_seventh_guest

    TorGuard should sue PayPal for that each second without it is a “lost sale”

  • Andrew Lee

    Paypal can go fuck themselves… It’s completely absurd that it had to become “news” before they would fix it. It just says if it went under the radar they would have kept it.

    My Paypal has been canceled. I never trusted them in the first place and I’ll just have to find other options for the few bucks I spend here and there on crap I don’t need anyways.

    Jesus fucking Christ stuff has really went downhill big time the last few years. What the hell. I mean they’re really taking some major  strikes at all of our rights and for some reason the majority seems to be fucking blind and deaf.. I doubt they will be happy till we’re all in chains working 24/7 to service the 1% of the 1%..

    Human rights are just fading out of existence and the more they kill the faster they try and go.. I mean look at it like this once censorship gets so bad it will be too damn late to say anything and actually have it heard before it’s blocked and you’re in trouble. I mean is that the kind of world people want to bring kids into? Not me it’s getting to the point where it’s becoming just plain immoral to bring a person into this world..

    I think I need to move out of the USA at least somewhere where the pirate parities are gaining a lot of support. At least then I can be somewhere that’s at least trying to fix some very fucked up problems.

    The only news here in my state is the prices of smokes going up to 7$ a pack. Yeah I realize they were already that high years ago in some big areas like NYC. The first time I was out there when I was trucking I go to buy some and I was like da fuck? So I told the gas station clerk New York can go fuck themselves.

    It was almost as bad as some price gouging Indian bitch up near Tehachapi CA on the 58 charging 10$ a pack which I turned their asses in for…

    People just keep getting more greedy and screwed up :( it makes it extremely easy to loose faith in humanity.

    I know I talk shit and joke around a lot but when I see so much stuff like this going on it seriously makes me depressed. Back in the day it was much easier for me when I did not care.

  • Umarabid2

    Is torguard any good for vpn servers for torrents as i need to know assp

  • Guest

    Gung-ho diplomacy: shoot first and ask questions later is the very essence of how not to treat business partners and lose all your friends very quickly.

    Paypal: The end is nigh. The very market that adopted your business
    model so thoroughly is the very savvy market that will swiftly dump you
    unceremoniously.

  • ThumbsUpThumbsDown

    An effective Internet wide boycott of Paypal by p2p filesharers would be nice; but, even nicer would be an aggressive, perhaps collective, perhaps ACLU and EFF driven, campaign of litigation to hold Paypal accountable for triple the losses incurred by its clients.  After all, Paypal’s actions are completely extra-judicial ptivate actions whose legal merits and legal standing, at best are unclear; and, at the worst, are completely without foundation. 

    Of course, we’ll be given the standard pablum about File Sharers and their intermediaries being no different than criminal drug dealers withthout presumptive rights to transact business within the legal financial system.  Yet, this conclusion did not come to us with the same blessed bolt of light that gave us the Mosaic Tablets; and, neither can it be found enshrined within the Constitution of The United States. 
    In fact, what can be found within that Constitution are standards of Civil and Criminal Due Process that set the bar of Proof and Evidence far higher than mere third party allegations and accusations.  What’s more, the DMCA does not say that an intermediary VPN is a Copyright infringer occupying the shoes of its infringing Customers. 

    Paypal is free to act on wrong decisions, but it must be held fully to the right liabilities.

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

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