They’ve basically found a way to steal what’s left in the account. That’s all this is. There’s probably tens of thousands of accounts that people got locked out of or abandoned with money in and this lets them steal it.
But since now Paypal requires your name, DOB, SSN, banking info, to simply transfer money out, the money is stuck.
I can't use the money to pay for things, because they require you to link banking info DESPITE the fact that I have cash balance. So basically, I had cash that I couldn't take out or use.
Now finally, they are figuring out how to steal that money.
I remember reading something about how PayPal can't loan out or use the money it is holding for users like a normal bank would- it's a sacrifice to their strategy to avoid being a bank in the USA.
I think that would make having all this money on their books annoying from a business perspective, along with the 'it's not mine' problem
Edit: read the article, it seems they'll take it back in one fell swoop.