EDIT: Upon further digging, it turns out most of the $50,000 were legitimate donations that were never disputed or cancelled; the guy did cancel a few donations and some of those claims were refused by PayPal, but most of his donations were undisputed and he really is in the habit of giving people money. Turns out all the sources I listed were just a circle jerk quoting each other and not doing any research, me included. So it looks like the real asshole in this case was me all along. [IRONY!]
Anyway, thread closed while the parties involved are done with the he-said-she-said and the truth comes out.
Donation trolling is the time-honored bait and switch prank usually performed by assholes. It's simple: dangle the shiny bait in front of someone, watch them dance for it, and then yank it away at the last moment, while yanking your dong with the other hand for maximum pleasure. Fun when you do it to cats, dick move when you do it to human beings.
The dick in question this time was a Twitch viewer usernamed iNexus_Ninja, the shiny toy was a total of 50,000 dollars in donations to various Twitch streamers (largest individual donation being $11,000), and the toy would be yanked away by means of PayPal's buyer protection and cancellation at the last minute.
So iNexus_Ninja donated the money, recorded the live reactions of the respective streamers to laugh at later on, and then attempted to cancel the payments... which PayPal promptly refused, citing that buyer's protection covers only payments made in good faith, and that donating with the intent of cancelling later on is not covered. Apparently there was enough evidence that the kid (The kid, yes. iNexus_Ninja is 18-year-old Anthony Archer from Australia.) had no intention of paying for PayPal to tell him to fuck off, deny the refund claim and charge him the full amount.
Now, PayPal isn't doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, or a particular moral high ground, because they can be scum at times, and by "at times" I mean "by default"; they are doing this because their transaction fee is larger than a cancellation fee. Still, it's something.
Little Anthony has since tweeted that he used his parents' credit card for the transaction, so there's no telling how and where this will end. If he had permission to use the card for his expenses, PayPal's claim can't be disputed. If he used it without permission, the bank can and should sue him for credit card fraud. And that's just the start; I will delve no deeper because legalese gets fractal real fast and it's too easy to get caught in the strings and the loopholes. It remains to be seen whether the Twitch streamers will get the donations in the end (most likely not, or at least not to the full amount), but one way or another it's unlikely the little ass tick will get away scot-free. Meanwhile I'm gonna sit back, watch how this unfolds, and yank
Sources:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/06/paypal-denies-50k-twitch-troll/
http://gamerant.com/twitch-troll-denied-refund-116/
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/06/09/paypal-wont-refund-twitch-trolls-50000-in-donations/
http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/twitch-troll-donates-50000-to-streamers-paypal-refuses-refund
Anyway, thread closed while the parties involved are done with the he-said-she-said and the truth comes out.
The dick in question this time was a Twitch viewer usernamed iNexus_Ninja, the shiny toy was a total of 50,000 dollars in donations to various Twitch streamers (largest individual donation being $11,000), and the toy would be yanked away by means of PayPal's buyer protection and cancellation at the last minute.
So iNexus_Ninja donated the money, recorded the live reactions of the respective streamers to laugh at later on, and then attempted to cancel the payments... which PayPal promptly refused, citing that buyer's protection covers only payments made in good faith, and that donating with the intent of cancelling later on is not covered. Apparently there was enough evidence that the kid (The kid, yes. iNexus_Ninja is 18-year-old Anthony Archer from Australia.) had no intention of paying for PayPal to tell him to fuck off, deny the refund claim and charge him the full amount.
Now, PayPal isn't doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, or a particular moral high ground, because they can be scum at times, and by "at times" I mean "by default"; they are doing this because their transaction fee is larger than a cancellation fee. Still, it's something.
Little Anthony has since tweeted that he used his parents' credit card for the transaction, so there's no telling how and where this will end. If he had permission to use the card for his expenses, PayPal's claim can't be disputed. If he used it without permission, the bank can and should sue him for credit card fraud. And that's just the start; I will delve no deeper because legalese gets fractal real fast and it's too easy to get caught in the strings and the loopholes. It remains to be seen whether the Twitch streamers will get the donations in the end (most likely not, or at least not to the full amount), but one way or another it's unlikely the little ass tick will get away scot-free. Meanwhile I'm gonna sit back, watch how this unfolds, and yank
Sources:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/06/paypal-denies-50k-twitch-troll/
http://gamerant.com/twitch-troll-denied-refund-116/
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/06/09/paypal-wont-refund-twitch-trolls-50000-in-donations/
http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/twitch-troll-donates-50000-to-streamers-paypal-refuses-refund