PayPal Promises Aggressive Changes to Frozen Account Policies

PayPal is finally doing something to improve one of the most reviled part of its product, the process through which those accused of fraud can dispute the accusations.

Countless innocent companies and people were falsely detected by PayPal's anti-fraud system and had to go through hell to get back access to their frozen funds.

PayPal has made online payments easy, millions of people use the service to buy all sorts of things, from gadgets to services to donations, from all around the world.

But you won't hear about anyone "loving" PayPal, in fact, you'll see quite a lot of people who despise it.

Not the regular users though, rather companies, organizations or individuals who receive payments via PayPal.

The company has always had an aggressive stance in trying to prevent fraud, but this often results in false positives, i.e. legitimate companies that are stuck trying to prove they are legitimate companies, all the while having all of their money frozen.

This nightmare scenario happens more often than you'd think, but PayPal is ubiquitous, making it hard for people to switch to alternatives.

Finally, that is changing, perhaps spurred by the competition in the mobile space, PayPal is promising to do something about the process of proving you're who you say you are.

CNNMoney talked to Anuj Nayar, PayPal's senior director of communications, who promised that big changes are coming this year and that the process is getting an overhaul. He wasn't too specific on what those changes are, but said they would be major.

"These are not minor -- these are aggressive changes," he said. "This is a fundamental shift in our business operations."

For one, it's going to be easier for those affected to find out what they have to do to prove their innocence. This means more info on what steps need to be taken next and why the account was frozen in the first place.

When an account is frozen, PayPal requests proof of months-worth of sales, something that a small shop might have, but not something someone raising money for charity is going to be able to provide. In many cases, PayPal also needs actual documents mailed to the company. These are just some of the things that are going to change.