Live on Isis Close? Then don't count on using PayPal: Web payment system blacklists addresses named after the Egyptian God in case they are terror-related
- Open University academic claims PayPal have 'blacklisted' addresses
- Online algorithms said to pick up references to ISIS and block them
- PayPal said it does everything possible to avoid such problems
Residents living on streets with Isis in their names risk missing out on online shopping after Paypal's web payment system blacklisted such addresses.
The word is automatically picked up by the company's online algorithms to stop transactions being processed in case they are supporting terrorism.
But it is causing problems for web surfers trying to buy things in Oxfordshire, where many streets are named after the Isis, the name given to part of the River Thames that flows through Oxford.
PayPal has been accused of blacklisting addresses containing Isis, such as Isis Close in Oxfordshire, pictured
Open University academic Ray Corrigan claimed PayPal has shunned all addresses with the offending word in, preventing a haberdasher friend from dealing with customers.
The senior lecturer in technology told The Times: 'Who knows if the 'avoid Isis' logarithm was added by a low-level techie, a policy division within PayPal driven by risk-averse lawyers, or some other process'.
It comes as a number of businesses and organisations formerly called Isis, the name of an Egyptian goddess, have rebranded themselves to avoid links to the terrorist cell operating in Iraq and Syria.
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They include an Oxford-based language school which changed its name to the Oxford International Education Group in April 2015, Belgian chocolatier Libeert, which changed its name in 2014, and French rock band Isis Child, which became Angel's Whisper.
US animated comedy Archer, in which a group of secret agents work for a spy organisation called Isis, withdrew all merchandise carrying that name in 2014 and changed the characters' workplace to the CIA.
In a statement, PayPal said it scanned all payments for links to terrorism and had no policy 'banning addresses that contain Isis'.
The firm said it scanned all payments for links to terrorism but had 'no policy banning transactions to UK addresses containing Isis'
A spokesman said: 'Government regulations require that payments companies including PayPal scan all payments for terrorist and other references.
'We do everything we can to eliminate references that have nothing to do with terrorism, such as the common Oxford name Isis, without compromising our compliance obligations.
'We have no policy of banning PayPal payments to UK addresses containing the name Isis unless we have additional reasons to suspect that the payment may be related to terrorist funding.'
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