Paypal lets you use any bank account including other peoples!
I just found out, through my own experience below, that Paypal will let -anyone- add a bank account to their Paypal account without verification! Not only do they let you add someone else’s bank account to your account, they won’t check to see if it is yours as long as you make purchases less than $1,000!
I found this out because my wife was able to add my personal checking account to her Paypal account and use it for purchases without ever having to verify that it was hers. When I called Paypal’s Account Security department Kristen and her supervisor Tony informed me that they, as a policy, will allow any person to add a bank account regardless of if it belongs to them or not as a “feature”. To paraphrase Tony: “We don’t want to prevent Bob Jones from adding Tammy Walters bank account becuase -maybe Tammy wants him to use her account”.
If that isn’t the most idiotic excuse I have heard of I don’t know what is. Yes, perhaps Tammy wants Bob to use her account… but the majority of people who will use this feature are identity frauders and scammers. The fact that Tony towed the line for Paypal instead of even possibly understanding that this could cause security and fraud issues tells me that Paypal just wants the traffic and will deal with the fallout in the end.
Fortunately, I can post my experiences here, Boing, Digg, the Consumerist, Consumer Affairs and file a report with the FTC. For an almost bank to have this attitude means that we have put far too much trust in Paypal for them to get away with it.
When I asked Tony what I could do to effect change in the policy, he invited me to submit a web form for feedback. Thanks Tony!
Paypal is garbage. don’t use them!