PayPal doesn't want you to buy knives

Why would you tell them it is for a knife? You are just asking for trouble. Just leave comments blank...most sellers of knives are well aware of the issues with PP and knives.
 
Don't use the comment area/box for anything and you can avoid these headaches.

As far as why it's PP's business to take on the role of the of the FBI/CIA/Homeland Security, that's not really something we need to discuss here, but it is something to think about.

Their purpose is to transfer YOUR money for a fee. It should start and stop there.....
 
Never put anything in the notes for PayPal ever, I have bought knives and hell even a gun before using paypal and I have had no issues at all.
 
Unfortunately this is not news. Many retailers decided to stop using Paypal, as they feel it is important to try and apply California state laws of banking transactions across the entire US50 and abroad. I would be interested in using EMT (electronic money transfer) or similar
 
It' s not the knife. It's the "persian" word which is the old name for Iran (actually Persia). It's against US law for anyone in the US or any US citizens (whether in the US or abroad) or companies having their HQ in the US to do business or facilitate business with a list of countries which include Iran. Other countries include North Korea and Somalia.

The law even goes as far as prohibiting doing business with an entity not on the prohibited country list if you suspect the entity is only acting as a go-between between you and ultimately a company or person on the prohibited country list.
 
I must've lucked out getting my rebuildable coil for my Uwell Crown off there from Cali.
 
Sorry you're having issues with them, Brummie. I know of a couple of (US) knifemakers that had issues with PayPal due to their product line (maybe it had something to do with the names - that wasn't mentioned in the emails).
I only recently re-verified my account. It had been useless for years because I wouldn't update my financial information due to my relative dislike for the company & its policies. When PayPal was the only payment option, I paid as a guest...eventually, though, they cut off that option; and it took multiple phone calls to find out why I couldn't complete a purchase.
 
AntDog said:
I must've lucked out getting my rebuildable coil for my Uwell Crown off there from Cali.
Click to expand...

It looks like some stuff is available now. A year ago they were freezing accounts. Don't use any flag words haha.
 
As someone who's worked in Money Laundering and Fraud prevention and Blacklist managing in IT for a bank.

Let me shed some light on the situation.

Every transaction you place (anywhere) is scanned for Fraud, Money Laundering, Connections to countries that have sanctions places on them etc etc etc.
This is especially true for transactions that go outside of the country. Those are monitored even closer for connections with terrorist organisations.

When you send money abroad.....using a description such as "Persian, ISIS (maybe you're buying an art piece of the Goddess Isis), Damascus, etc... your transaction gets flagged as suspicious. And can (after investigation) be cancelled.

Add to this Paypal's iffy relationship to anything even remotely illegitimate and/or weapon(y) and you get:

A knife ordered (flagged)
From another country (Flagged)
With a description "Persian" (flagged)

Yeah...large chance that money won't make it.
 
I paid for a knife from a sale thread where the guy was selling about 15 knives at once so I put the name of the knife in the comments to alleviate any issue. Well the same thing happened, PayPal suspended the payment due to the word Cuban, as in the "#53 Cuban Stag Stockman." It's a cigar frame traditional pattern, hence the Cuban reference as the name.

I called PayPal, explained this to them. They sent me an email asking for more info and I simply supplied a link to the manufacturer's website showing the exact knife I was buying, and 2 days later the payment was released and the seller, located within the US in the first place, shipped the knife. It was actually pretty easy to get taken care of.
 
I always suggest to keep any notes of the actual merchandise out of the Paypal transaction,and only discuss this information in our other , email or PM ,wich we are doing anyway. A lot of people will still " talk it up" in the Paypal transaction. It's up to you,the information you pass around through Paypal. So use your head
 
There are several good ideas in this thread all knife traders should be aware of.

The company I used to work for used e-mail filters. The filters flagged any incoming e-mail that used any number of (about) 700 words. The list fluctuated from time to time due to contract requirements. We were required to analyze these e-mails for security reasons. Point is, word and sentence scanning is a common security procedure in the corporate world.

I'm thinking the word "Damascus" got flagged because it's a city located in a volatile area of the planet. PayPal is like any other company. They don't want to deal with being investigated by government agencies tasked with tracking illicit financial transactions. I don’t blame them.

I agree with others who recommend leaving the comments section blank, if possible. If you have to be specific due to circumstances (example: one seller selling 15 different knives. there is a need to organize in order to avoid confusion), used coded language. For instance, if you bought a knife made with M390 steel use the phrase: "M390 on BF." PayPal doesn’t have a clue what that means, the other party does because they’re knife aficionados. Be discreet, everyone wins.

Avoid using key words like: knife, sword, blade, sharp.

NEVER use military sounding words: tactical, combat, bomb, attack, gun, firearm, intruder, home invasion, death. The probability of those transactions getting flagged is very high.
 
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