555-0100 through 555-0199 are specifically reserved for fictional use.

. . . so I assume their sw checks for 555 exchanges.

Anyway, your proposal raises larger ethical issues. If I represented “555-” as my phone number then I’d be lying. …

Instead of just assuming, why not find out? Making negative assumptions and disparaging PayPal over this only serves to weaken your case (with me at least), and I personally doubt that PayPal is actually checking those numbers in any event.

Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

I routinely use fake or throwaway email addresses when an Internet site insists on an email address — that’s simple prudence.

Am I lying or being dishonest? Sorry, but I don’t think so — I’m under no obligation to give correct information, express or implied, and your Bush analogy is fatally flawed in my opinion, since I’m not a member of government. Websites are free to ask for whatever they want, and I am free to tell them whatever I want. If they care about accuracy, then they should check, as responsible sites do with email addresses.

Are you also upset by authors publishing under pseudonyms?

. . . so I assume their sw checks for 555 exchanges.

Anyway, your proposal raises larger ethical issues. If I represented “555-” as my phone number then I’d be lying. We live in a society where people lie about things all the time and somebody has to resist that!

The rationalization that lying is OK because Paypal are sleazeballs who are asking questions that are none of their business is EXACTLY the same rationalization that Bush&Co. use when lying to the public or in testimony to Congress: “I don’t like them or their questions so why should I tell them the truth?”. If Gonzales was a man he’d tell Congress, “I’m not going to tell you why we fired those attorneys” rather than lying and saying he forgot. He’d be fired in a day, as well he should be, but at least he’d be honest.

From an ethical standpoint, if someone asks me a question and I don’t want to answer it then all I have to say is “I’m not going to tell you anything about that”. That’s perfectly honest. If I have a statutory requirement to reveal certain information then I need to be prepared to accept my punishment (e.g., as when a reporter goes to jail for not revealing his sources), but in this case that doesn’t apply.

Dishonesty in government, corporate, oand personal life is rampant and I don’t want to be part of it.

Why not just use a fake phone number for PayPal?

Because I have no good way to know that it’s not someone else’s real phone number!

555-0100 through 555-0199 are specifically reserved for fictional use.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_telephone_number

Because I have no good way to know that it’s not someone else’s real phone number!

Anyway, they have no legitimate need to know anyone’s phone number, so I regard Paypal to be a sleazeball outfit just for demanding it. The US mail is good enough for me.

Just a warning to anyone thinking about using Paypal – it asks for your home phone number and it designates it as a required field. We never give out our home phone number to any company, and Paypal has no legitimate reason for asking – I buy stuff online all the time without giving my home phone number.

But I can send money through the mail (Sidewalker, how DO they pay for things remotely in Japan?) so I’m sending ROS a check.

Why not just use a fake phone number for PayPal?