treeturner123
Established Member
Hi All
Apart from the dreaded wood fever, I also collect stamps in an on-off way. I am sent news letters from some sellers that I regularly use and I thought that you might like to read of the experience of one of these sellers with 'Paypal' and the US government.
This week I would tell you how a humble trader/dealer in stamps has attracted the wrath of the US Government, in particular the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control - I kid you not!!! As most of you are aware I run a couple of online stamp shops and the main method of payment is usually Paypal. I was surprised therefore to receive an email from Paypal advising me that "It has come to our attention that you're advertising PayPal as a payment method for the sale of items that may be of Sudanese origin". Now as a British Commonwealth stamp shop, I had to agree that, yes, I did sell Sudanese stamps!! I did, as you might expect, contact Paypal thinking that this was a storm in a teacup and they would remove the new limitation on my account without a problem. After all my Sudanese stamps are mostly 100+ years old and have not seen the Sudan for all of that time and that I have no customers in Sudan! However, the reach of the US Treasury department is long and they will not allow the purchase or sale of Sudanese "Foreign Assets" in any way or form to be traded via US owned companies!
Talk about Big Brother! I cannot believe how ridiculous the situation is BUT the upshot is that I have had to remove all Paypal links to my Sudanese stamps on eBid until such time as the "embargo is over"! Several hours of work but the job is now done! So, if you wish to buy Sudan stamps from my eBid shop, please feel free to do so BUT I will have to bill you manually! Actually, I can do this via Paypal as long as I don't mention the word "Sudan"!!!
Perhaps the US think that old stamps may explode or something!
Phil
Apart from the dreaded wood fever, I also collect stamps in an on-off way. I am sent news letters from some sellers that I regularly use and I thought that you might like to read of the experience of one of these sellers with 'Paypal' and the US government.
This week I would tell you how a humble trader/dealer in stamps has attracted the wrath of the US Government, in particular the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control - I kid you not!!! As most of you are aware I run a couple of online stamp shops and the main method of payment is usually Paypal. I was surprised therefore to receive an email from Paypal advising me that "It has come to our attention that you're advertising PayPal as a payment method for the sale of items that may be of Sudanese origin". Now as a British Commonwealth stamp shop, I had to agree that, yes, I did sell Sudanese stamps!! I did, as you might expect, contact Paypal thinking that this was a storm in a teacup and they would remove the new limitation on my account without a problem. After all my Sudanese stamps are mostly 100+ years old and have not seen the Sudan for all of that time and that I have no customers in Sudan! However, the reach of the US Treasury department is long and they will not allow the purchase or sale of Sudanese "Foreign Assets" in any way or form to be traded via US owned companies!
Talk about Big Brother! I cannot believe how ridiculous the situation is BUT the upshot is that I have had to remove all Paypal links to my Sudanese stamps on eBid until such time as the "embargo is over"! Several hours of work but the job is now done! So, if you wish to buy Sudan stamps from my eBid shop, please feel free to do so BUT I will have to bill you manually! Actually, I can do this via Paypal as long as I don't mention the word "Sudan"!!!
Perhaps the US think that old stamps may explode or something!
Phil
