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 Replies: 31 / Views: 4,590 |
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Valued Member
United States
113 Posts |
I was recently informed that: PayPal's Compliance Department has reviewed your account and identified activity that is in violation of United States regulations administered by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  Let me lay out exactly what happened: I bought a 1933 Cuban Peso coin and had a disagreement about the condition and value of the coin once I had it in my hand. The seller suggested a partial refund to which I agreed. He sent the payment or refund indicating what it was for. I was then told by Paypal that I was breaking the law by trading goods of Cuban origin. Cuban coins before the 1960's were minted in the USA so the country of Origin is in fact the USA, not Cuba. The embargo also specifically does not include items predating Castro. I don't know why PayPal can't use an understanding of US law and history to discern that but it is fact that the coin I purchased did not originate in Cuba. If it is PayPal's goal to ban trade of all items that may have ever been in Cuba, then why not ban the trade of anything from any other country that lacks trade restrictions with Cuba? Because indeed, any item may have set foot in Cuba at some point. That of course would be ridiculous yet so is PayPal and ebay's ban on Pre-Castro Numismatics. I was asked to complete the following appeal step: 1. Agree to no longer undertake activities in violation of laws, regulations and rules as outlined in PayPal's User Agreement. I cannot agree to that as worded because agreeing to "no longer undertake activities in violation of laws ..." would implicate that I broke US law - which is not true. Would y'all agree? This is such a mess and all due to ignorance!  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
814 Posts |
im so glad that I live in Canada....
IMO I would just agree...did you send them a message stating your side of the story? You guys are strange with the whole Cuba thing.....haha
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
I wonder if the seller got a similar message? I tried to list an Iranian coin (I live Canada but my ebay account is .COM) and the listing was automatically cancelled along with a nasty red-text email. (I relisted in the same category spelling it I_R_A_N and bypassed the filters). So much for the "land of the free" |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1949 Posts |
Wow, that's absolutely crazy. I would be real annoyed if I had anything valuable from Cuba.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
548 Posts |
I really do not understand the embargo against Cuba. Is it really still necessary?
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Valued Member
 United States
113 Posts |
I think the embargo was partly because Castro nationalized some assets owned by US investors or Citizens.
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Valued Member
United States
315 Posts |
The embargo was caused by the Cuban missile crisis.
Wow that sucks. No matter how you look at the law, its stupid. Lets say my jeweler was born in Cuba and is now an American citizen. Is anything he makes also illegal?
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
Lets say my jeweler was born in Cuba and is now an American citizen. Is anything he makes also illegal? No. Thats not a product of Cuba that would benefit their economy in any way |
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Forum Dad
United States
24154 Posts |
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(I relisted in the same category spelling it I_R_A_N and bypassed the filters). That was likely not so smart. You're begging to get completely axed. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11951 Posts |
Interesting problem. I Agree that a 1933 coin should not be a problem. It is not like you are helping the Cuban govt. by owning that coin. I just did a general search on ebay "Cuba coins" got 62 hits, several of them are coins. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4085 Posts |
Can you just respond back saying that you agree not to engage in activities that are in violation of PayPal's User Agreement?
You are not specifically agreeing that you broke any laws. If what you are saying about OFAC is true, then you are just agreeing that you violated a PayPal rule, not a law or regulation.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
from ebayQuote:
We don't permit the sale of items that claim to be pre-embargo because we cannot determine when an item was removed from a specific country I guess is does not matter when an item was made, just when it left the country? If the coin was brought to the USA after the embargo there is a chance it benefited someone in Cuba in some way. full ebay embargo information: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/embargo.html |
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Valued Member
United States
315 Posts |
Wow, so I guess my cuban jeweler is out of luck too then. There's no way to tell when he made the jewelry.
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Moderator
Australia
16817 Posts |
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im so glad that I live in Canada.... You may live in Canada, but ebay is an American company and ebay America's rules regarding trade of coins from countries which the American government has blacklisted apply to all ebay divisions, worldwide. You can't post Cuban coins for sale on ebay either, and neither can I here in Australia - even though both our governments have normal diplomatic relations with Cuba. It's been mentioned on the forum several times before. This thread is specifically about Cuba. This thread and this thread are about embargoed countries, generally. Just more evidence, if more is required, that the ebay eMpire is a law unto itself. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
All this embargo stuff seems flimsy... especially for Iranian coins from before 1979! And now I know why it's so hard to find the new 5,000 rial coins on eBay*  * If you've got some of the newer circulation issues, PM me, and we'll crush freedom together. |
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Replies: 31 / Views: 4,590 |
Posted 10/20/2013 12:47 pm
