That's pretty standard for any sort of fraud prevention. You never tell people what triggered it because when it's not a false positive you're telling scammers what to avoid next time.
That's a tired and frankly ignorant excuse. An experienced fraudster will in most cases know full well what happened, and if they don't it won't take them long to put together some theories and test them. The "no reason" routine is to shelter the company from legal liability.
Yes but the reason to have rules surrounding this is because the government can lock you up and in some cases end your life.
If Etsy steals actually steals money from you sue them into oblivion but not disbursing money until the check clears is not some evil thing. The fact that they're willing to take the risk for sellers with good reputation is a kindness not a given. If you're more sure than Etsy is about not getting a chargeback then put it on your standby line of credit and pay it back when the money comes.
"If your revenue stream is unfairly disrupted, just sue the major corporation with your backup pile of cash, switch over to your backup line of credit, and if all else fails, ask daddy for a small loan of a million bucks to see you through!"
If Etsy just up and decided to not pay you at all period what are you gonna do? Wallow in self pity? File a complaint to the BBB? No you're gonna take them to small claims or big claims court depending on the amount.
If Etsy goes from fronting you the cash and charging you back chargebacks to waiting until the transaction settles because they consider you risky then that's not stealing; and while it sucks they could decide to do it because fuck you or they could start doing to everyone. If you need the cash immediately you tap a line of credit for the first 45 days and then run your business on like normal.
I get that Etsy is makes running a business feel a little too easy so long as you always live on the happy path but dealing with clients/partners not paying on the timeframe sucks but is a totally normal think you have to prepare for.
Maybe a mutual aid and insurance organization for Etsy / other online marketplace? In which members pay in a little bit to a legal fund which is used to correct payment problems
The interesting part there is the seamless transition from seller/people to scammer. I believe the policy will eventually have to change to accommodate innocence until proven guilty.
There are some pretty dramatic stories out there with people getting unusual amounts of orders forcing them to buy unusual amounts of materials and do unusual amounts of work which creates an unusually full agenda and may drain finances to the edge... and then they don't get their money or the orders are refunded after delivery and they don't get proper assistance resolving the issue. "We wont tell you what you've done wrong because of reasons" is really the stuff you want to hear at that moment.
Not sure what the solution should be but I wouldn't want a role in that movie.
What is the problem usually? We don't know? How do you fix an unknown problem? If it is that someone is selling an unusually large amount it seems doable to limit the number of widgets they may sell in stead of platforms taking more orders they know cant be resolved.
The security in fraud protection (or any detective control) is in the thresholds and triggers being activated and protecting the system.
Protecting the values of those controls is common sense. This is on a need-to-know basis. Users don't need to know.
If you advertise that your system will permit 9,999 transactions per minute, then every client will calibrate to max out at 9,999, malicious or not. Then, you adjust that up or down, and not everyone follows suit. Whoops!
What fraud? The dictionary says: "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain."
Accusing people of fraud for personal gain seems like fraud to me. If it is beneficial for you to not disclose how the fraud works it seems we are talking about both deception and a false accusation - for personal gain? aka fraud?
Wow you guys! Some of you say that Etsy won't give any reason, and here you say that Etsy is accusing people of fraud!!!
You can't have it both ways! It seems to me like Etsy's silence is the opposite of an accusation, and whatever investigation they're doing, they don't want these sellers to flip out any more than necessary!
Also, these sound like reasons to me:
> Etsy's payment policy states the reasons for putting money on hold include a sudden increase in sales, a shop having only made its first sale recently, the shop committing a "policy violation" or "other risk factors".
Etsy's interest in fraud prevention goes to their reputation as a marketplace, and their relationship with legitimate sellers, buyers, and their payment processor, and any other third-party services in the loop. If Etsy doesn't accurately detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, then their bank and payment processors will ban Etsy for fraud, and I think that would really suck for 100% of sellers!
It is not easy for Etsy to bank-switch. They can't just POKE a register.
Also, some of those reasons aren't necessarily fraud, just indicators. It's a "Yield" sign to slow things down until they can check it out. I mean, do you realize the scale of this platform?
Etsy can pay 5% interest rate when they hold funds. As simple as that, which these companies don't want to do.
Companies and banks use the same nonsensical reason every time: 'whatever investigation they're doing, they don't want these sellers to flip out any more than necessary!' I don't give any benefit of doubt to any company or bank, unless they are audited by a third party not influenced by these companies.