By Cyrus Farivar
02:00 AM Sep. 08, 2005 PT
On the morning of Sept. 3, Rich Kyanka set up a PayPal account to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims, with the intention of donating the money to the American Red Cross.
Kyanka runs the popular Something Awful web community, which is based in New Orleans, and donations came in quickly. Within nine hours, Something Awful readers had donated $27,695.41. Kyanka donated an additional $3,000 from his own pocket.
“While we are a very cynical and bitter and adult humorous site, when actual tragedies strike, we try to band together and try to help out,” the 29-year-old said.
But just as Kyanka prepared to send the money to the Red Cross, the account was locked by PayPal, which launched an investigation into possible fraud.
Kyanka said he thinks PayPal became suspicious because too much money came in too quickly. PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires would not discuss details of the case, citing “privacy concerns.”
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1662949
There’s been a thread made about this article on SA. Just thought you’d like to know. SA seems to like it as a whole.