Tehran Airport Scenery Purchase blocked by PayPal

[officercrockey 196]

14 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

I'm not sure I understand this... I highly doubt, it has anything to do with US embargos or trade restrictions.

SimMarket is based in Germany. The PayPal transaction isn't sending funds to any Iranian bank or people - it's trading with SimMarket, who is the facilitator in this particular instance...

PayPal isn't aware of what you have bought... They act as a payment processor between you and the seller - SimMarket in this case. They receive information of an transaction ID, an amount and details of you as a person. Unless you are Iranian or are paying using a credit card, which is issued by an Iranian bank, I don't see the connection. 

They obviously are. Because it happened to me as well and I read many other stories like this.

It is correct that Simmarket is in Germany and ARMI Project is probably based somewhere else as well. I assume Paypal has quite a stupid filter on the word Iran.

And if I log in to PayPal I can see WHAT I bought... so they know what you are buying.

[ErichB 3,638]

26 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

They act as a payment processor between you and the seller - SimMarket in this case. They receive information of an transaction ID, an amount and details of you as a person. 

Simmarket is the facilitator, but the underlying recipient of funds will be a factor in the sanctions algo - which will be blocking the payment.  Either that or the name of the product.  It depends how their screening is set up.  It is a sanction blockage for sure.       

[anden145 2,285]

6 minutes ago, ErichB said:

Simmarket is the facilitator, but the underlying recipient of funds will be a factor in the sanctions algo - which will be blocking the payment.  Either that or the name of the product.  It depends how their screening is set up.  It is a sanction blockage for sure.       

Fair enough...

I still doubt it has anything to do with sanctions or embargoes! 

It could just as well be that PayPal is sensitive about credit card purchases to certain countries... I had a friend from Turkey, who once tried purchasing an airlines ticket with a turkish credit card. That transaction was declined. Simply because of the credit rating and the country of origin.

I have some times seen that my own credit card (issued from a bank here in Denmark) gets declined (or the payment/transaction held back) because the country (or origin of the seller) is from a country, which has a high fraud probability... 

It could be sanctions - but I highly doubt it... Please don't jump to conclusions, without knowing the full picture... If anything, try calling PayPal and ask them.

[ErichB 3,638]

5 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

It could be sanctions - but I highly doubt it... Please don't jump to conclusions, without knowing the full picture... If anything, try calling PayPal and ask them.

I'm a Compliance Officer in financial services.  My views are pretty considered.  :)

There are sometimes 'false positives' in the payment screening systems, but these would need manual consideration.   But again, it depends how the algos are set up and what information is being supplied and screened.

 

[mwilk 1,106]

4 hours ago, ErichB said:

 

As Paypal is a US company the OFAC sanctions algorithm on their payment systems will probably not allow the payment to be made as the developer will more than likely be based in Iran.  Facilitating a payment to an OFAC sanctioned country could lead to massive fines for any US institution facilitating the payment.   Best to use another payment method.  The UK has lifted sanctions against Iran so payment from a UK or European based banking institution should not be a problem.

 

My issue wasn't with Tehran scenery, it was with KIAH. Their software must pick up on certain keywords that flag the transaction. I ended up using a credit card outside of PayPal.

[ErichB 3,638]

54 minutes ago, mwilk said:

My issue wasn't with Tehran scenery, it was with KIAH. Their software must pick up on certain keywords that flag the transaction. I ended up using a credit card outside of PayPal.

There will be some false positives for whatever reason or it could also just be an entirely unrelated reason which has nothing to do with screening.

But the US and UK probably have  the toughest sanctions and payment screening processes globally, and it isn't really surprising that this piece of software in particular is problematic for a number of people using Paypal 

[Jim Young 2,356]

5 hours ago, Anders Bermann said:

I'm not sure I understand this... I highly doubt, it has anything to do with US embargos or trade restrictions.

SimMarket is based in Germany. The PayPal transaction isn't sending funds to any Iranian bank or people - it's trading with SimMarket, who is the facilitator in this particular instance...

PayPal isn't aware of what you have bought... They act as a payment processor between you and the seller - SimMarket in this case. They receive information of an transaction ID, an amount and details of you as a person. Unless you are Iranian or are paying using a credit card, which is issued by an Iranian bank, I don't see the connection.

This is so unbelievably correct I cannot believe others are still thinking nefarious causes.  AVSIM has many Iranian's as members and we continue to process new registrations from Iranians.  This topic is locked!