I just received notification from PayPal that they consider my site in violation of their Terms of Service. They have closed down my account and will not allow me to access it nor give me the money in it. Their notice even says that I cannot petition them to argue my case. This is why CosplayDeviants does not have PayPal access and uses ccBill instead.

THIS BEING SAID… YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN ACCOUNTS. If PayPal keeps trying to deduct a subscription fee, you have to cancel it.

I’m sure it’s a waste of time but I have just sent off an email to them anyway explaining that they have no right to content on my site that they can’t even see!

Here’s just part of my response which I’m sure will go unnoticed.

I have already announced that my site would be closing (http://amberunmasked.com/?p=1660).

I need access to my account as I use for all sorts of purchasing and banking transactions not tied to my site’s activities. I have enrolled in classes which gets paid via PayPal. I cannot have my account blocked for 180 days. There’s no warning? No asking for clarification?

First of all, I am an artistic glamour style model. Though the images contain nudity, they are not pornography. I model for art schools and private artists of the comic book industry. The fact that you are trying to censor art is shameful. My site does not contain things that you’d find in triple X sites like descriptions of sexual actions, masturbation imagery, or anything not easily seen on cable television. The modeling I have done is in the same vain as pin-up models from the 1940s.

The fact that you say the ruling cannot even be petitioned is ludicrous! Have you even asked to review my content? No you haven’t. You’re making a broad assumption that bare breasts = pornography.

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Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.

13 Comments on Paid Section Officially Closed!

  1. Paypal the politically correct prudes of the internet… sorry to hear that they’ve gone about this so heavy handed and blunt. 🙁

  2. PayPal blows. One giant monopoly on the internet and NO ONE has any prayer of competing with them.

    Sorry Amber.

    🙁

  4. That is a damn shame. I just recently found your site and think it’s fantastic. I’m really digging the tutorials. Ok, so I don’t need the those particular costumes but I can use some of the instruction on other projects.
    I’d love to hear an update on what happened.

    • There’s not going to be an update in regards to PayPal. It’s a permanent ban. Period. I’ve looked into two other companies and the one seems to have the same stupid logic as PP and the other has fees that I can’t afford.

  5. Old thread, and familiar story, I know, but has anyone checked to see if it is legal for PayPal to keep people’s money, if they deem them in violation of their terms?
    Seems PayPal is making money off activities that they deem ‘in violation of their terms’. If that isn’t an ethics violation, I don’t know what is!

  6. I know this is a seriously late response as this has happened some time ago. I am so sorry to hear that you are first going through this ordeal. Out of just common sense, you would think they would at least allow you to remove Amber Unmasked and allow you to utilize it for your personal business. That would have made more sense for them to do. I see Better Business Bureau and NJ State official (trying to think of the appropriate title) getting involved. If you have not had any recourse to date.

    • There are just certain monopolies on things like the way Zuckerburg wants to rule the world. Google owns YouTube both of which use PayPal to pay when you have earned ad rates; ebay owns PayPal now. Etsy still only uses PP for online transactions. The set up fees for traditional cc merchant accounts are just too inflated for a one-woman operation.

      • You might want to look into opening a business account at a local bank and look about getting a credit accepting system through them.

      • Please believe that after all this time, I’ve researched a lot. CC processing is VERY expensive. When I ran my own business for three years I couldn’t afford to take cc. They have high minimums and high fees.

  8. It’s not just their policies on web content, they over charge regularly. Since I stopped frequenting their services, they now send notices “For security reasons, we need you to update your credit card number.”
    Since getting anew card they can no longer charge my account with fees.
    Poor PayPal.

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