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Take a photo of your SSN card -- and submit it!
This must be some kind of error, right? I called PayPal and after being placed on hold for 21 minutes, a representative by the name of Sam picked up.
The conversation...
Me: "...you guys are asking for a photo of my Social Security card, this cannot possibly be true, is that correct?"
PAYPAL ASKING USERS TO PHOTOGRAPH SOCIAL SECURITY CARDS -- AND SUBMIT IT OVER INTERNET...
Audio: "We want to know who we're dealing with"...
THREATCORE PROJECT
04/20/2016 - 2:29 PM EDT; UPDATED 6:01 PM EDT
Forget everything you've been taught about cybersecurity and common sense on the
internet. That is apparently the mindset of PayPal, the
company who specializes in online payments. A visit to PayPal this morning
prompted me that my account was 'reviewed'
and more information is needed. PayPal stated: "We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information to help us provide you with secure service."
Clicking on the resolution center shows that PayPal wants a photo ID, Proof of Address, and Proof of SSN. How so?
PayPal: "OK, let's take a look at this"
Me: "OK"
PayPal: "Your account would be under [removed] dot com?"
Me: "Yep"
PayPal: "Ok, I do see that there is a compliance uh...verification pending with your account."
Me: "OK"
PayPal: "We are required by law to verify social, proof of social, proof of ID, and proof of address."
Me: "OK, I submitted my proof of name and proof of address but there's...apparently I still can't send funds because I didn't provide my Social Security number,
which I will not do, I am telling you that right now. That goes against everything that everybody teaches about cybersecurity so if you guys are requiring that
from me, you can just kill my account right now."
PayPal: "The alert will remain there until you if you don't complete it."
Me: "And you're telling me that people actually comply and take a photo of their Social Security cards and then send it to you guys?"
PayPal: "That is correct, that is correct." Audio here...
Me: "That is amazing, I cannot believe that people actually do that."
PayPal: "Yeah I mean, it's actually uh, I, I'm sorry that this has caused you any inconvenience this uh, Tom."
Me: "No, it's concerning. You don't do that, you just don't."
PayPal: "It's a secure server."
Me: "...Thank you very much, you answered all of my questions."
PayPal: "I completely understand your point, Tom, because I mean we are concerned about security. Uh PayPal it's it's uh it's actually our business to keep our information
secure. Uh and the reason why uh, we also verify people, uh, we wanna create a safe environment for both sellers and buyers,
we wanna know who we're dealing with. I mean the best
best way that we can have to verify, uh, who has a PayPal account, who's sending money, who's
receiving money is by completing this verification."
Audio here: Audio here...
Stunning.
There you have it - PayPal thinks it is perfectly fine to take a photo of your SSN card and send it to then over the internet. They want to know 'who we're dealing with.' Dealin' with...
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