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Bomb Explodes At PayPal Headquarters

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wed Nov 01, 2006 01:31 PM
from the disgruntled-customers dept.
Pooua writes to tell us that an explosive device left outside of PayPal headquarters exploded last night. The explosion was powerful enough to knock out one of their plate glass windows but thankfully that was the only casualty of the blast. Perhaps they should have offered employee protection instead?
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davidwr writes "Paypal settled a suit with Maryland and 27 states. Among other things, they'll conspicuously advertise a contact phone number and staff it 14 hours a day and be much more forthcoming about when they will debit your bank account. For those of you who think Paypal Sucks, well, starting soon it sucks just a little less."
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  • by ackthpt (218170) * on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:32PM (#16675171) Homepage Journal

    Shouldn't be too difficult to find the culprit, just look for someone extremely dissatisfied with their service.

    Seriously, anyone who thought they were having a bad time of it with PayPal will find that experience pales compared to the bad time they'll have for planting a bomb.

    • by wizbit (122290) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:33PM (#16675197)
      Shouldn't be too difficult to find the culprit, just look for someone extremely dissatisfied with their service.

      Great, that narrowed down the list by about two. Any other ideas?
      • by Frymaster (171343) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:40PM (#16675349) Homepage Journal
        Great, that narrowed down the list by about two. Any other ideas?

        yeah. paypal set the bomb off themselves. now, if anyone complains about paypal's service, they instantly become a suspect in a 'terrorist' act.

        great way to guarantee customer satisfaction!

        • by malsdavis (542216) * on Wednesday November 01 2006, @02:45PM (#16676529)
          It's scarey now that something like this - which is obviously a purely criminal act (one of vandalism and possibly GBH or even murder) - can now be called a "terrorist act". With all the negative connotations which are implied. I wonder what else our government will start declaring as "terrorism", surely any malicious act could ultimately fall under the government's ever widening definition of the word.

    • by squiggleslash (241428) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @02:28PM (#16676211) Homepage Journal
      Shouldn't be too difficult to find the culprit, just look for someone extremely dissatisfied with their service.

      There is absolutely no way that a customer could have planted this bomb. Nobody who has ever been a PayPal customer has any idea how to contact PayPal, let alone their actual physical address...

      • by ackthpt (218170) * on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:47PM (#16675495) Homepage Journal

        Chargeback my account eh!!?

        I imagine when some saw a headline "PayPal Bombed" they thought, "They certainly have."

            • Re:I imagine... (Score:4, Insightful)

              by shaitand (626655) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @02:52PM (#16676665) Journal
              "So let me get this straight, you see the biggest story on domestic terrorism in five years, and you think it's funny?"

              Yes I look upon this pathetic excuse for a terrorist act and agree that it is the biggest incident of domestic terrorism in five years the second largest in the past fifteen years, third largest in decades.

              With that in mind I look at the 'war on terror' we wage that has caused more terror and death than the United States has seen as a result of domestic terror. Yes, I find the situation so sad that it transcends sadness and can only be comprehended as a joke.
              • Re:I imagine... (Score:5, Informative)

                by AusIV (950840) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @04:06PM (#16678349)
                A window was destroyed and this is the biggest incident of domestic terrorism in five years?

                I suppose extremists firebombing a neuro-scientist's neighbor doesn't count, since they bombed the wrong house.

                And what about bombings at abortion clinics, which have been fairly widespread since the 1970's. A friend of my family works at an abortion clinic as a counselor who tries to persuade patients not to have abortions, and her car was set on fire by abortion protestors.

                I'm not sure how you define domestic terrorism, but it hardly seems that this is the largest act of domestic terrorism this year, much less out of the last 5.

  • Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:32PM (#16675189)
    What happen?
  • by Skyshadow (508) * on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:33PM (#16675201) Homepage
    Man, if I had a nickle for every time I wanted to bomb Paypal, I'd have... er... probably a real hassle getting all the money out of my Paypal account.
  • ... then the terrorists will have already have won.
  • by thewiz (24994) * on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:35PM (#16675225)
    are a blast!

    So I've heard.
  • Not very big (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Silver Sloth (770927) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:38PM (#16675297)
    From TFA
    "Whatever caused this was pretty strong,' said San Jose Fire Department Capt. Jose Guerrero. "It's tough to break one of these windows."
    Er... As someone who lived in the UK during the IRA bombing campaign I can suggest that if the 'bomb' only broke a few windows then it wasn't exactly huge. Consider this atrocity [wikipedia.org]

    Looks more like the sort of thing I used to knock up as a teenager - Sodium Chlorate and sugar anyone?

  • Funny? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nos. (179609) <andrew&thekerrs,ca> on Wednesday November 01 2006, @01:43PM (#16675403) Homepage

    I just don't find any of this funny. Planting a bomb anywhere but in strict controlled testing areas is not a joke. Obviously this was at least meant to damage the building, and possibly even to harm people. Imagine for a minute that you're a tech at this location, regardless of who it is. You're not responsible for corporate policy. Yet you're in as much, or more danger from an attack like this than those who do make the decisions.

    I'm just glad nobody was hurt, and that the damage was relatively minor. I hope the culprit or culprits are caught quickly, and dealt with harshly.

  • by ElephanTS (624421) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @02:21PM (#16676091)
    I knew about this. I got an email saying that all of PayPal's servers had blown up and they had lost all my personal and banking information. Luckily I simply followed the link they provided (things must be bad over there - they didn't even use the regular PayPal URL) and updated all my info. Thanks to PayPal for their quick customer service and helping me avert this little disaster.

    Were eBay affected by this? I've just got an email from them now . . .

  • by teneighty (671401) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @02:24PM (#16676147)

    I've been ripped off by PayPal twice, with absolutely no recourse whatsoever to get things rectified. The amounts involved are small enough that its not worth getting the legal system involved, but big enough that it's intensely irrirating. I think PayPal's business model is at least partly based on having free will to screw over individual customers in this manner.

    While I don't even slightly agree with the bomber's methods, I do understand what would drive them to do this. Individuals are powerless against PayPal, so its no suprise they will lash out any way they can. This is a classic terrorist attack in that sense - someone who felt they had no options left, so they turned to the increasingly commonly accepted equalizer: bombings.

    The very moment there is a viable alterntive to PayPal, I'll be switching (Google, are you listening? I'm getting desperate here!).

  • by daveewart (66895) * on Wednesday November 01 2006, @02:32PM (#16676291)
    "Postage was quick, but the item exploded upon arrival."
    • by blueZ3 (744446) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @02:05PM (#16675831) Homepage
      and not in a good way.

      If you're using the service to buy and sell on eBay, and everything else in the transaction goes smoothly, then PayPal workd fine. However, if you have a problem (with a buyer or seller) and you try and take it up with PayPal, you're going to get screwed. Let me explain how it works:

      If you are a seller, and you ship and you "collect" money from PayPal and ship the item you sold, if the seller complains to PayPal (they can claim they didn't get the item, that it wasn't as advertised, etc.) PayPal will take the money out of your account because the transaction was "fraudulent" -- your loss: one item (which you shipped) since you won't be seeing the money. If you are a buyer, it works the other way around. If you pay for something and it never arrives, PayPal will refuse to refund the money.

      As far as I can tell, in instances where there is a dispute, PayPal collects the money for themselves and the buyer and seller are out of luck. Some of this seems to be based on "who complains first" but generally if you use PayPal and have a problem, you can kiss your money goodbye. Add to this the fact that PayPal constantly pushes linking your PayPal account to your "real" bank account (apparently so they can clean you out in one fell swoop) and you have a recipe for... well, I'd say about 5 lbs of ammonium nitrate, some black powder, and a time-delay fuse.