PayPal users from the European Union are receiving emails these days with the subject “Additional information required by 29.9.2011″. What first looks like another phishing email is in fact a legit PayPal email. According to PayPal, users from the European Union need to confirm account information because of a new EU law.
Users who fail to comply will have their PayPal account limited, which basically means that they wont be able to send or withdraw money from the account.
It reads:
Need further information
Dear Martin Brinkmann !
We need to confirm some of your account information or collect further information. Please complete this by 29.09.2011. If we don’t receive this information in time,
PayPal is required by law to limit access to your account.What should I do?
The next time you log in to your PayPal account you’ll be guided through a process to collect the necessary information.
Why is this required?
EU law requires financial services firms like PayPal to confirm the identity of all our customers. This is necessary to provide a safer platform for our users and to help prevent the illegal use of our services.
When you visit the PayPal website you will see the following screen after login.
The screen offers similar information and options to update the account information now or at a later time. Information provided on that page are slim. Neither the EU regulation is linked to properly for users to verify or read up on the regulation, nor is it explained what users need to update, other than that they have to identify their account type and may be required to upload documents to PayPal.
A click on Update Now loads a screen where users are asked to verify their ownership type. Available for selection are:
- A private account suits any individual operating outside of a company, business or profession.If you’re a non-registered partnership, you’ll need to select business account for sole proprietor.
- A sole proprietor What’s this?A business account for sole proprietors suits any individual operating a business where there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business. A sole proprietor may also use a business name other than his or her legal name.
- Any other type of business, charity, or government entity What’s this?
Once you have confirmed your selection my checking “Yes, the information above is correct” you are taken to the next screen. This screen depends largely on the selection. My choice of “sole proprietor” for instance completed the process immediately. I was greeted with a “You’ve finished providing the information we needed” page and did not need to upload data or add other information to my account.
PayPal users can repeat the process on that screen, for instance if they made a mistake.
A click on the continue button loads the PayPal account interface.
Have you received please update your account information emails from PayPal? Did you already fill out the information on the PayPal website? If so, share your experience with us in the comments.
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Update on my PayPal Story
I haven’t got any mail from PayPal.
After I logged in, everything was as usual. Well I just use PayPal only for paying/donating when it’s not possible otherwise. My account would be closed already if there would be something to replace it. I’m not receiving any money just spending it, that might be a reason why I did not receive any mail.
Indeed it looks like SPAM and while most SPAM contains “Dear customer” and maybe some spelling mistakes this would have make me feel like one broke into PayPal and stole personal information, because it actually contains my name.
this sounds really fishy…i’ve just logged in into mine (germany), but nothing such as this even i don’t received any email from Paypal regarding this.
Maybe they are only sending those emails to users with a certain volume of payments, or they are sending out the emails in batches. No idea really. But I went to the PayPal site manually and logged in, so I knew it was the real site and not a phishing site. And I’m using the security token during login for increased security which phishing sites do not have.
What! Confirm who I am? Who does this PreyPal mob think they are, a prudentially-regulated “bank”? What a shame, after all these years, I’ll just have to take my money laundering business elsewhere. What a bummer. … But, hang on, this letter is apparently only addressed to PreyPal users in the EU. Whew, that’s a relief, I can carry on as usual in the US.
No such notification in my account as well. I do think this message looks quite suspicious . For such thing Pay Pal would have done a press release or more media buzz.
I have a paypal premier account and i received exact the same message with different date.
but my question is, should i choose “private account’ or sole propriator?
i have upgraded to premier 3 years ago…
i’m an individual seller and i sell old collectible cards.