Getting names from paypal

mynewusername25

On the PayPal send money page, you can input any email address and find out the full name of the person who owns it and that they have an paypal account. It will say "Bob Marley is a registered paypal user" when given an email address that that person uses for paypal.

Does anybody else think this is wrong ? I mean it's perfect for sending fishing emails, all you do is buy a load of email addresses and you'll be able to see which ones have paypal accounts and that their full name to send them a perfectly addressed email (ish)

I complained to paypal but they have been completely totally and utterly useless.

What do you think ?

chancesare_2

Isn't Bob Marley dead?

Pembroke

So let me get this straight, first you want to buy an email list (couple of hundred pounds for a decent selection), then you want to enter each one into Paypal to see if they have an account (but you don't know if Paypal have a system in place to limit the number of cancelled transactions you can make), plus entering each one manually will take quite a while so you may need to write a script to do it for you (so you need to know or learn programming a course is more expense), then you want to send a phishing email to each of these people to see if they will bite (so you will need a private mail-server as your friendly ISP will ban you if they think you are sending spam). Seems a lot of work and quite a lot of expense for no provable result. Let's face it if what you suggest is that easy then don't you think someone somewhere would already have tried it ?

Of course all this is possible, and I'm sure it's been tried but a simple phishing email will net a few 'customers' without all the Paypal name entering rigmarole.

mynewusername25

Ok, forget the whole scamming fishing business, it was just an example... (and a poor one)

You don't need to make a transaction to find out this information, is my point. Your email address and who you are be kept private unless you make a transaction with a person. You don't need any money .

I tried to post some screen shots, but can't as a new user :cool:

mynewusername25

Well, a bank would tell you anything if you only had an address, so paypal shouldn't

You couldn't walk into a bank and say" who holds an account at this address and what is their full name?"

The politely tell you to get lost....

But you can do this on paypal, why ?

esuhl

The PayPal Privacy Policy (under the heading "Disclosure to Other PayPal Customers") says that you agree that various data (such as your name) will be made available to other PayPal customers.

The following section says that "PayPal will not sell or rent any of your personally identifiable information to third parties, and will only disclose this information in the limited circumstances and for the purposes described in this policy."

A quick glance suggests that "limited circumstances" relate to banks, police, regulatory authorities, etc.

So, it seems that you have agreed to share your name and email address details with any other PayPal customer, but not to anyone without a PayPal account.

arriva

esuhl wrote: »

So, it seems that you have agreed to share your name and email address details with any other PayPal customer, but not to anyone without a PayPal account.

so ....only 229,583,355 individuals as we speak have potentially access to my info, brilliant.

see "ACCOUNTS WORLDWIDE" here: http://www.paypal.co.uk/uk

arriva

arriva wrote: »

so ....only 229,583,355 individuals as we speak have potentially access to my info, brilliant.

see "ACCOUNTS WORLDWIDE" here: http://www.paypal.co.uk/uk

...forgot the daily gif animation... here it is:

.................................................

suited-aces

Where can I buy the toilet in that gif? Could be a real time saver!

arriva

suited-aces wrote: »

Where can I buy the toilet in that gif? Could be a real time saver!

can't have it. It's only for politicians...

mynewusername25

Just in case anyone besides me cares about this (doesn't seem like it), they seem to have removed this functionality, or it's broke. Maybe they got sick of my emails?.....