Antisec goes after Paypal

ONLINE PAYMENT FIRM Paypal has once again gained the attention of disgruntled internet users and is the target of an operation mounted by Anonymous and Lulzsec.

The payment firm has already been targeted for stopping payments to Wikileaks, and in a separate and apparently random attack, had its Twitter feed taken over in the UK, but this latest attack - for want of another word, aims to hit it right at its heart - its business.

Now, because Paypal continues to curry favour with governments, the Antisec movement has had enough and has asked people to vote with their feet and aid its cause by closing their accounts.

An Antisec communique criticises the company for harming Wikileaks and helping law enforcement agencies hunt down its members. This, as anyone from HBGary Federal could tell you, is a bad idea.

"PayPal continues to withhold funds from WikiLeaks, a beacon of truth in these dark times. By simply standing up for ourselves and uniting the people, PayPal still sees it fit to wash its hands of any blame, and instead encourages and assists law enforcement to hunt down participants in the AntiSec movement," wrote the group in a release posted, as per usual, to Pastebin.

"Quite simply, we, the people, are disgusted with these injustices. We will not sit down and let ourselves be trampled upon by any corporation or government. We are not scared of you, and that is something for you to be scared of. We are not the terrorists here: you are... We encourage anyone using PayPal to immediately close their accounts and consider an alternative."

The operation, called Oppaypal, has a lot of traction on Twitter and, in addition to the statement from Antisec, its message has been mirrored on the accounts of others associated with the groups.

The @AnonymousIRC account posted this message this morning, "Hello @PayPal: You sue your innocent customers for $500.000. And you, U.S. Gov't want to add 15 years of prison. Well, not gonna take it," adding, "Always remember: We didn't start the fire it, was always burning an it was YOU who put the fucking gasoline in. So don't complain!"

So far the campaign seems to be going well, for Antisec at least, and the operation reckons that by the end of the week it could see as many as 9,000 Paypal accounts closed.

Some users are donating their remaining funds to charities, while according to reports from others Paypal might be manipulating its close your account pages. µ