this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025

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364

Adult game developer’s PayPal funds held for over a month despite being legitimately sold on Steam [80k GBP] (www.gamepressure.com)

submitted 6 days ago by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca

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[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 127 points 6 days ago (21 children)

PayPal can and will steal your money because fuck you, that's why, and you're left with basically zero recourse.

[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 42 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's why I deleted my PayPal account last year. Fuck them

[–] Weslee@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Yep, same, I did some competitions with a friend, they sent me my half of the winnings via PayPal, his account is hacked and the hacker for some reason tries to claim back all the winnings. Even though the hacker only got access once and my friend was in constant contact with PayPal, they still dragged it out for months and months, every week sending me warning about my account being in debt despite the fact my friend had already told them about the hack and proven his identity.

It's funny that a hacker with a random IP and no verification can fuck my life up for 6+ months with a single click, but my friend with all is documents and login history can't convince PayPal they need to stop trying to take ~£60k off me.

As soon as it was finally sorted I deleted my PayPal.

[+] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io -19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Use crypto wherever you can.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Are there more legal protections for crypto payment processors than traditional payment processors? My understanding is that there's less regulation in the crypto space these days.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Cryptocurrencies themselves are automated, self sustaining systems - no regulation applies at that level at all. In reality crypto "payment processors" provide services of instant exchange to regular currencies, and aren't even mandatory (but they're very convenient).

So regulation applies, but only to optional middleman that perform conversion and send regular currency to the merchant

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So when dealing with volume purchases via a secondary store front (as established in the article) doesn't need any kind of intercession from Steam or another processor to deal with any and all purchases? It's all completely autonomous with no intervention needed by anyone at all?

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

As long as merchant doesn't need to convert from crypto to regular currency, no third party is involved in the transaction, it's a direct P2P system - in other words - perfect digital cash

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

So you just need to say "I give this person .001 bitcoin" and they magically get it? That's wild to me.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Well, you take their address, sign a message with your private key saying .001 bitcoin goes there and propagate it over the network. But in very simple terms yep, bitcoins magically land on their address. Whole thing sustains itself on economic incentives and cryptography, without any central authority

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

So there is a network and backbone to it. And you need to do something more than "I give this person a bitcoins for my game" especially when working through a separate storefront. Both to ensure that the person receives their game and you receive their currency.

The problem with current transactions isn't the money itself, it's the services that use that currency.

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

So there is a network and backbone to it.

Yes, Bitcoin is not a currency, it's an open permissionless network of trust secured not by access right managment and opacity but game theory and past energy. Very useful to build currencies. I recommend you Andreas Antonopoulos work, his content age very well and everything is under CreativeCommons. A great video to start is : What is Bitcoin and why does it matters?

The problem with current transactions isn't the money itself, it's the services that use that currency.

It really depend where you live. For Venezualian, Lebanese, Turkish and many more people there is huge problem with their currencies and banking services. Also in Africa many ex-french colonies are forced to use Franc CFA which is basically an economic-leash by the french government. We can debate on the many issues with the USD currency but these are little (for now at least) compared to others.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So there is a network and backbone to it

Yes, it's a permissionless P2P network.

And you need to do something more than "I give this person a bitcoins for my game"

Signing and sending transaction is exactly it. Transaction says that you send your bitcoins to an address controlled by the other person.

especially when working through a separate storefront. Both to ensure that the person receives their game and you receive their currency.

Crypto doesn't ensure you get the product. Like with real cash, other party might just run away with money

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Crypto doesn’t ensure you get the product. Like with real cash, other party might just run away with money

Which is why intermediaries exist and why crypto isn't in any way a solution for the problem this entire post is about. And why bringing it up randomly is complete tech bro wankery.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Are you concerned that Valve runs away with your money?

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago

Valve? Not concerned. Random company selling something I need for a good price? Sure.

The intermediaries are useful when dealing with less trustworthy merchants.

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 days ago

You know you can build an escrow out of a smart-contract (even on Bitcoin) using multi-sig to ensure both parties are satisfied ?

[–] slykethephoxenix@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yes, simply put, that's how it works. You should read the whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

The first sentence:

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution

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[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 58 points 6 days ago

Another friendly reminder that PayPal is not a bank. They don't carry FDIC insurance. They aren't regulated like a bank and you agree that they can do fuck all to your money at any time for any reason or no reason.

In other words,

STOP USING PAYPAL!

[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 50 points 6 days ago (1 children)

As much as I believe PayPal would do this (they have closed accounts without warning and stolen all pending funds many times in the past, which is why it's commonly recommended to avoid them if you're making decent money), the only source for this article is a Reddit thread that doesn't name the game or company.

There's a decent chance this is just someone's creative writing exercise using the current scandal to get attention.

[–] tekato@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

It is probably real, since PayPal clearly states that you need pre-approval to accept payments from mature content.

https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/paypal/acceptableuse-full

[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 31 points 6 days ago

This is now the millionth time that there are news that PayPal can and will do this and that there is almost 0 legal action you can take.

Why oh why on Earth do you still keep money stored there? I understand using it for transactions, sometimes it is the only way but there is no need to keep the money on it, or is there?

At this point, sorry, your own fault for trusting PayPal.

[–] who@feddit.org 15 points 6 days ago

Correcting the bad headline: The funds were not sold on Steam. They were earned from game sales on Steam.

[–] XenGi@feddit.org 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Friendly reminder for people with SEPA capability that https://bezahlbrudi.jetzt/ exists. Don't use PayPal. Just use your bank. (Doesn't help with shops, but at least for that pizza night where John paid for everyone and now wants your share for the big pepperoni)

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 10 points 6 days ago

PayPal is a scam

[–] KindnessisPunk@piefed.ca 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

we need a non-american alternatives.

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

This is Financial violence. Seriously GNU-Taler, Any fucking time now

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 6 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Unreal

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 9 points 6 days ago

engine

[–] EvilEdgelord@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

https://store.steampowered.com/app/13250/Unreal_Gold/

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I don't think they sell Unreal on Steam

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