A long time ago, when all this was fields, PayPal was a great way to send money anonymously.  Turns out that that's not true anymore and I just found out the hard way. Brace yourself, even by my standards, this one's a clusterfuck.

I needed to send somebody some money. I won't explain why, suffice to say, I'm an idiot. So, in order to get it done quick, I decide to try and paypal it, but I don't want to leave a paper trail, so I set up a dummy account and pay some money into it. So far so good. I go to pay the money to intended recipients email address and it won't let me. I have a payment limit. In order to lift the limit, they want a credit card number. The site tells me that if I give them that, it'll let me pay somebody.

Here is where I make my first big mistake. Instead of doing the research and figuring out that I could refund the money to my real account, I go ahead and give them the card. Now it tells me that I can pay somebody. Great. So I try again and it still won't let me, now I need to give them a real phone number so that they can call and verify me. Okay, so I give them my hobby phone number. Then they want the address associated with the bill to 'verify it'. Crap, I don't know what address I made up when I registered the phone.

Second mistake, I give them my real mobile number. At this point, I'm not going to go through with paying this way, I just want to send the money back to my real account and send the money some other way, so I give them my mobile number. Then, they 'limit' my account. Not only can I not send money, I can't remove any credit cards or phone numbers from the account. Now, they've really trapped me.

They won't tell me what they want to unlimit my account but they say that they want to confirm my identity. Judging by some of the stuff I've read on the internet, this involves faxing large quantities of personal documents and information. It's a real data-mining operation.

I managed to figure out how to refund the money back to my real account, you're apparently allowed to do that with a limited account, so the account so at least I have my money back. The problem is that I can't remove the credit card or phone number from it. The credit card, I could solve by opening a new credit card account and closing the old one, but the phone number is a problem. Paypal associate phone numbers with accounts, so you can pay somebody via a phone number. I may just have to live with that and work around it.

The moral of the story is that you can't use paypal to send money privately.

Your woes are a new one on my, but many people have been burned by them.

Instead, check with a gal if she accepts Green Dot Moneypak cards.

You but them annonmynously, only $4.95 for up to $500 (You can't buy more than two cards at a time for a limit if $900 combined, but they are sold at all sorts of stores so you just go to another store if you have to.)

You text the coded number on the card to the gal, tell her the amount, and you're done.  

I've never had a problem with them.

Western Union is another option but they are not annonmynous and are more expensive and are a lot of hassle on both ends.

to boot. For months those morons sent emails to my "hooker email" asking "London Rayne" a hooker to use their stupid service...so I said why not. I put their seal on my website and guys started using it to pay deposits or pre-pay for future appts. What happens? I get a "Sorry, your account is frozen for suspected illegal activity." Um, wtf your morons did not get a clue with my naked body and my rates page that something was up? Ignorant! They are still sending me spam to this day about my account being frozen, and I just tell them to fk off.

Actually, the Greendot MoneyPak cards now have a limit of up to $1000 that can be loaded onto one card.

Great advice for the future, thanks MrF.

I bought a card just last Friday, and it says right on the back maximum of $500.

been raked over the coals by PayPal.  I have to use it for a non-hobby activity and they keep trying to latch onto my bank account info...  "verifying".  I figure the bastards can then reach into my "verified account" and take the money back...  any time they want.  I saw it coming & only use my CC even though it means checking a bunch of boxes at each checkout.  I've refused to be verified.  My CC works fine TYVM.  
I don't advance money in the hobby...   I just don't play in the limited circumstances that would justify it.  
H

I do not need all your personal information, and paypal takes 3 days to transfer funds provided you don't get some knuckle head who posts on paypal for services instead of making it really easy & marking it as a gift!

...passed on the one time someone wanted me to use PayPal. It wasn't a provider but I just don't do that kind of stuff. Something about it made me say No, I don't think I will. I don't need or want anything badly enough to use those kinds of services.

If you send money to a provider, expect that they will know your real name.

I have sent payment to providers I have already seen many, many times this way, but that's because they already know my real name and are comfortable with giving me their real name.

And on the newbie board at that!

After I read that I asked myself, did that potty talk really come out of me?

I guess it was a real tough day at work.  Everyone is running away when they see me coming.

But seriously, if you do some research on line about Paypal, you'll find some real horror stories about how they have put small businesses out of business by freezing their accounts, and other assorted atrociites.

That's the problem I had with those fools. Unless you create a dummy site to tell clients to pay from, your escort site taking funds that are being deposited into a bank account, is rather risky. May as well take credit cards. I don't need anyone knowing what's going in my account, which is why I always pay my mortgage and any other large bills in cash. I never deposit that money in the bank. What I deposit is what I pay taxes on, so it all lines up. For all they know, I have a SD or my real daddy paying my damn house note!

Actually, I don't mind her knowing my name. I actually completely trust her.

I may be paranoid but I just feel that it's safer for everybody, from an LE perspective, not to have a paper trail that links client to provider.

Am I being paranoid?

the only one using her paypal I would presume, so the risk if more on her unless you are married of course. Might be hard to explain why you draw out 300 every other week lol.

That had occurred to me.

It's entirely possible that I'm being an asshole or cowardly by avoiding putting any skin in the game, or that I might just need to not be so uptight about these things.