Here is what I have setup to help prevent the type of issue that was brought up.

I have a pay pal account. It is setup to deposit money into a personal account (lets call it my bank-paypal account) at my bank. This account is only used for PayPal, BillPoint, etc. It is seperate from my own personal account, and the joint household account.

When I get a paypal payment, and its posted into my paypal account. I immediately have it transfered from paypal into the bank-paypal account unless it will be used immediately to pay for something through paypal. Once there, its automatically by the bank into my separate personal or joint account that paypal has no access to. This usually leaves around $50 in the bank-paypal account, and almost nothing in the actual paypal account. They would violate several federal laws if they even tried to get the money back, and my bank can not release it them either.

Every transaction requires an additional transfer to keep the money safe, but its ironclad as far as paypal not having any access to that money.