About a year ago, I bought clothes online using PayPal for my mother (and shipped to her address). PayPal blocked the transaction and temporarily suspended my account until I could verify a detail. When I logged in to verify, it was asking for the recipient's (my mother's) birth date. I thought it odd that they would ask, and also know, the birth date of someone PayPal has no association with.
I called their support (finding a human to talk to was difficult) to ask for the reason why I would need to give out my mother's birth date. I was asking for other ways I could verify and that I shouldn't be asked to give out someone else's PII. The support person started to become defensive, sarcastically asking "you don't even know your mom's own birthday!?".
I could tell this person saw nothing wrong with the ask and thought I was being intentionally combative. I ended up conceding and giving the information. Since then, I've stopped using PayPal as a payment method.
I always thought this incident strange and have wondered about how their verification method works.
I called their support (finding a human to talk to was difficult) to ask for the reason why I would need to give out my mother's birth date. I was asking for other ways I could verify and that I shouldn't be asked to give out someone else's PII. The support person started to become defensive, sarcastically asking "you don't even know your mom's own birthday!?".
I could tell this person saw nothing wrong with the ask and thought I was being intentionally combative. I ended up conceding and giving the information. Since then, I've stopped using PayPal as a payment method.
I always thought this incident strange and have wondered about how their verification method works.