Stop Using Paypal : Anonymous and LulzSec says, Ebay Stock Price Drops !

Anonymous and LulzSec have declared war on eBay’s PayPal with a boycott of the payment service and the fallout could have some real financial implications.

Anonymous, together with LulzSec, issued a press release  urging PayPal users to close their accounts immediately and consider an alternative. They pointed to PayPal's willingness to "fold to legislation" as proof that it doesn't deserve its customers and the business they give to the payments providers.

Not surprisingly, Anonymous and LulzSec are urging a legal boycott of PayPal. The groups said:

In recent weeks, we’ve found ourselves outraged at the FBI’s willingness to arrest and threaten those who are involved in ethical, modern cyber operations. Law enforcement continues to push its ridiculous rules upon us - Anonymous “suspects” may face a fine of up to 500,000 USD with the addition of 15 years’ jail time, all for taking part in a historical activist movement. Many of the already-apprehended Anons are being charged with taking part in DDoS attacks against corrupt and greedy organizations, such as PayPal.

According to a Tuesday report by U.S.-based alternative news site, The Raw Story, 20-year-old University of Nevada journalism student Mercedes Haefer faces a jail term of up to 15 years and $500,000 in fines if convicted of hacking charges.

Cnet Reports,Shortly after the new post hit the Web today, Anonymous claimed through its Twitter account that PayPal had lost more than 9,000 accounts in just a couple of hours. The group also claimed that PayPal had taken down its Web page where people can cancel their accounts, though the site seemed to be up and running normally.

ZDNet reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested her last week for allegedly participating in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against PayPal last year as part of the "Operation Payback" campaign.

Operation Payback was an organized launch of DDoS attacks against entertainment websites like the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America. The attack was sparked by members of the image board website 4chan.

Wikileaks is showing support by tweeting: "We support the work of #Anonymous in drawing attention to the economic blockade of #Wikileaks by corrupt financial institutions. #OpPayPal"

EBAY STOCK PRICE DROP!!

EBay's share price dropped over 2.5 percent at the beginning of Nasdaq trading on Wednesday.

WikiLeaks was quick to crow drop of price on Ebay's stock. Anonymous' campaign dealt a "$933M stock crash" this morning for PayPal parent eBay. Shares in eBay did drop over 2.5 percent at the market open, but have since recovered somewhat.

Evercore financial analyst Ken Sena told ZDNet UK  that the Anonymous action was unlikely to have had much of an effect on investors. Sena instead attributed the fall to strong results posted by Amazon on Tuesday.

"eBay shares are suffering from Amazon posting really strong results," said Sena. "I don't see this [Anonymous action] as a big driver."

Already, people are responding to Anonymous' call. One user, Pantha85, tweeted:
"Account Closed. Mmake you bleed from the only place you care.. your wallet. thanks @YourAnonNews #oppaypal #anonymous".

Another follower, Pacific_Justice, pointed out: 


"Next reason to join #OpPaypal and cancel your account: they created an illegal financial blockade of #WikiLeaks - a publishing organization".

There is no information on how long the boycott would last, although a tweet at 3.32 p.m. on Wednesday revealed an estimated "few hundred" PayPal accounts have been closed so far.

This is not the first time hacking groups like Anonymous have targeted financial institutions. Visa and MasterCard were also attacked for their role in blocking donations to Wikileaks.