Paypal: Are You a 'Politically Exposed Person'?

[jshell]

Tonight get an e-mail informing that my PayPal account is locked I've no access to funds and that I have to provide information as to whether I'm a Politically Exposed Person 'PEP' or not. Bit of a surprise, seems to be targetted for some reason, but as I have no real political affiliations I don't see where this has come from. Naturally I've answered in the negative, but doing a google search throws up many peope having problems with this.

Anyone else here been through it??

[rxtx]

It can be as simple as you having the same name as someone that's on the list.

I used to work on the IT side of a foreign exchange company, one of the customers was called Tony Blair. Not that one. He had all sorts of problems because of it and came into the office to provide documentation.

It's just extra due diligence placed on financial companies in an attempt to decrease risk, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

[Whoozit]

PEP is one of the big gotchas in Know Your Customer regulation. Along with anything touching Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, Iran etc.

Sorry, it's a ball ache. But once you've proven the negative it should be cleared up for a while at least.

[jshell]

Thanks guys, was hoping it was that simple!!

[Pesty]

Yep had this.
Wasn’t so simple I had to prove who I was and jump through some hoops.