Paypal’s new honeypot scheme for adult content creators

So they added a new “digital adult content” drop-down item to select in your Paypal business options but when you choose it your account will immediately be closed down. Just letting everyone know so they don’t get tricked! Even though this is a selectable item IT IS STILL ILLEGAL AND AGAINST PAYPAL POLICY TO SELL “SEXUALLY ORIENTED MATERIALS OR SERVICES”

okay so i’m seeing a lot of reblogs on this saying it’s a hoax or “probably not true” or “just in case this might be true” so just to be clear, this IS TRUE, exactly as depicted by the twitter poster in OP’s link.

when you go to create a business account, after having you enter your email/password, name, business name, and contact info, it then asks you about what kind of business you are running. that’s when you get this:

as shown above, when you go to fill out your business category, “adult digital content” appears as a subcategory to “entertainment and media.” as far as i can tell, this is the only place it is listed.

while the legality of selling sexually-related services and media in the U.S. varies from state to state, PayPal’s official Acceptable Use Policy states:

“You may not use the PayPal service for activities that relate to transactions involving […] items that are considered obscene” and “certain sexually oriented materials or services.”

it’s entirely—and probably intentionally—unclear as to what items and services are considered “obscene” or otherwise against PayPal’s policy, but i can only assume that it’s entirely up to the whim of whoever reviews user accounts to determine whether something is grounds for shutting an account down.

on top of that, a quick Google search revealed one user who asked PayPal directly what their restrictions on “adult content” were, and their account was closed shortly after inquiring. so even asking PayPal to clarify their policy can potentially get your account closed.

in any case, this is real and literal entrapment. sex workers, NSFW illustrators/animators, and adult product retailers need to be aware and be careful!

Check our “paypal” tag for more instances of sex workers having accounts shut down by paypal.