Payment on hold for "government regulations"

[robotbacon]

In all of my years with PayPal, I've never seen this message on a payment :

"We've temporarily put this payment on hold while we verify that it complies with regulatory requirements. We'll contact you about this within 24-72 hours. To learn more, see PayPal goods or services regulations." (The link is dead in both this message and the email.)
A different message was in the payment email:

"To comply with government regulations, PayPal is required to review certain transactions. This payment is currently being reviewed and we will complete this process within 72 hours. This review only involves this transaction and does not affect the use of your PayPal account for other transactions."

The payment is for $10 worth of common action figures; I don't have any disputes with anyone and I file my taxes. Buyer is one state away from me, and we're bot verified. I've been on PayPal for many years and even have a PP debit card. Has anyone else ever seen this message? Is it about ME, or is it about the person who paid me? Very confused right now.

If anyone else has faced this, can you tell me what it's all about?

[Stormspell]

Yep, same thing: I'm selling an Audio CD by the band DAMASCUS (A US band from the 80s!) and BOOM! All transactions have been denied instantly and investigated under government regulations... LAME!

[mzmolly65]

Wondering what ever happened with this issue.  It's just cropped up for me when I tried to send money to a friend.  WTH??

[robotbacon]

Hello!

Mine was DEFINITELY triggered by a word in the item's description or accompanying text, as 'dio' was related to war or weapons in the other person's language. Perhaps there's something in the text of your message that tripped a filter?

If you post the text here, it might be more obvious, but in my case, it was definitely a weird filter issue. I ended up calling PayPal to prove that the item I was selling was indeed a diorama, with the item number, etc., and it was cleared up immediately - but it took a direct call.

[Gassion]

Odd that PayPal has not posted to this thread... In researching this topic I've found a number of references to the legality of government monitoring of purchases.  It seems that this issue may be impacted by United States v. Jones. (note: I’m not saying it is specificly) In US v. Jones the Supreme Court found unwarranted monitoring via GPS locator to be non-constitutional. It can be argued that unwarranted financial monitoring in real-time provides like data. The FBI has tried, and failed, to make use of the Allwrits Act to circumvent personal device security of cellular phones, even after a crime was committed and the data was no longer “in transit” Thus it can be argued that even if your data is transmitted to an agency after a completed transaction is not constitutional without first obtaining a warrant of search and seizure. I’m not a lawyer and I don’t claim to be absolutely correct here, but I’ve written PayPal in an attempt to get my payment released and all future monitoring to cease without a warrant. We’ll see how that goes…

Here are some research references for your awareness.

http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/criminaljustice/wcc_newsletter_hotwatch.auth...

http://www.nesl.edu/userfiles/file/lawreview/Vol46/4/Davis%20-%20Final.pdf

https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/celltracking/celltracking_decision.pdf

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2728372/Orenstein-Order.pdf

[sharpiemarker]

I think it pays to be very descriptive of what the payment is for or use an order number as reference on payment.  Would stop these problems on its tracks.

[Heartgal101]

Well, I have had this "pending for government regulations" thing happen while trying to purchase a replacement pump for my pressure washer. The seller is in Cal. And I am in Fla. spoke with them live so I know it is a valid business. I am a native Floridian. So, I called PP & they told me it is the gov that is "reviewing" this purchase. 

[garyddavis]

lI had the same nonsense just now, and I'm not too pleased about it. I signed up for a weekend event at our local Buddhist center in Los Angeles, a strictly spiritual teaching. No merchandise, no foreign trade, just teachings. I got the same "government retulations" BS. The government is going too far in interfering with ordinary lives and trade! And PayPal isn't at all forthcoming about why. They should be up  front and print the specific and complete policy by which they're acting.

[DoneWrong]

I just attempted to purchase an electric baseboard heater from a hardware store in Washington state. This purchase is time-sensitive because the painter is waiting on the electrician is waiting on the heater. I cannot afford to wait two days for this transaction to be approved. 

In fact, virtually everything I purchase online I purchase with expectation of quick delivery. I cannot wait for purchases to survive a 72-hour review.

So, PayPal, you need either to

1) notify the purchaser BEFORE the payment is sent that the purchase will be delayed, and/or

2) allow the purchaser to cancel a transaction that is under regulatory review.

Otherwise, I cannot continue to use PayPal.

[irishhhh]

Agree completely! It's BS! Will no longer be using PayPal!

[Remind]

     I placed an order today for scrapbooking materials and got this message "This transaction can not be completed because it violates paypal user agreement " -with no other information.  Paypal then emailed me that it was due to "goverment regulations" and that they would review my order within 70 hours.  From what I have read in this community section, I believe I got the message because I ordered an ink pad by Altenew called "Persian Blue." If that is the reason for the review paypal needs to fight against this or prepare to lose customers.