Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
Last weekend at least 5 stampers that I know of had their paypal accounts hacked. Yes, one of them was me. I find it odd that this all occured last Friday night, but whatever....
Since this happened I have learned the following and hope you can learn from my experience.
1. Check your emails frequently. I started getting notices of purchases made with my paypal account and immediately went on to paypal's site and challenged the purchases.
2. Paypal investigated immediately and agreed with me that the purchases were fraudulent.
3. However, because the paypal pays the merchant immediately, the request to take the money from my checking account went forward and, after paypal had determined that the purchases were fraudulent, the money was removed from my checking account anyway! Ugh.
4. My bank cannot and will not stop a request for payment from paypal. The bank suggested opening up a small checking account and keeping small sums of money in it just for paypal. They are willing to do this without a fee since we have other accounts with the bank. Or, you can link it to your credit card only and then dispute the charge with your credit card company.
5. I cannot close my paypal account until paypal refunds the money to me.
6. I didn't respond to any weird paypal phony emails. According to paypal, accounts are hacked all the time because bad people (my words!!) use these random password generators OR/AND a virus steals your passwords. Talking to a live person at paypal takes patience. Be prepared to wait in a long line.
7. So, PLEASE change your paypal password ALL the time -- at least once a week and use a password that is complete nonsense and includes characters like ^&*#.
Hope this helps someone avoid getting ripped off.
__________________ Dear Paperlicious is my blog...with a series on how I'm learning to improve my cardmaking by studying others.
Sorry you are having problems. I feel lucky I have had no problems in the 8 years I have had an account. Off to change my password now. Just hope I can remember it
This is what I do and for just that reason. Thanks for the warning, I am sorry to hear this happened to you (and others).
Yip, me too. I am guilty of not changing my password as often as I should though (because it is so hard to remember them all!) but I will do it right now.
Thanks for sharing, Joan - sorry for your experience :(
Good information, Joan. I had not idea that was so prevalent. I will make a point to change my password often.
Sorry, you had to waste stamping time dealing with this!
Thanks for letting us know this very important information. I have been getting these weird e-mails saying items are being shipped to me from a certain vendor through paypal but I don't have an order coming. I have contacted the vendor. I just double checked my paypal and no activity.
I am so sorry you have to deal with these problems.
Last weekend at least 5 stampers that I know of had their paypal accounts hacked. Yes, one of them was me. I find it odd that this all occured last Friday night, but whatever....
Since this happened I have learned the following and hope you can learn from my experience.
1. Check your emails frequently. I started getting notices of purchases made with my paypal account and immediately went on to paypal's site and challenged the purchases.
2. Paypal investigated immediately and agreed with me that the purchases were fraudulent.
3. However, because the paypal pays the merchant immediately, the request to take the money from my checking account went forward and, after paypal had determined that the purchases were fraudulent, the money was removed from my checking account anyway! Ugh.
4. My bank cannot and will not stop a request for payment from paypal. The bank suggested opening up a small checking account and keeping small sums of money in it just for paypal. They are willing to do this without a fee since we have other accounts with the bank. Or, you can link it to your credit card only and then dispute the charge with your credit card company.
5. I cannot close my paypal account until paypal refunds the money to me.
6. I didn't respond to any weird paypal phony emails. According to paypal, accounts are hacked all the time because bad people (my words!!) use these random password generators OR/AND a virus steals your passwords. Talking to a live person at paypal takes patience. Be prepared to wait in a long line.
7. So, PLEASE change your paypal password ALL the time -- at least once a week and use a password that is complete nonsense and includes characters like ^&*#.
Hope this helps someone avoid getting ripped off.
VERY good info Joan! And GREAT tips! I also wanted to add on the Password note - use upper AND lower case letters and add a number in there! The more things like that that you do, the harder it is to crack!
A GREAT example of a VERY secure password would be - P@ssw0Rd - Notice the capital letter, special character, AND number (zero instead of O). This is an EXAMPLE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS AS YOUR PASSWORD! LOL
Another thing you can do to make it easier to remember is use a common word, but change it like I did above....
VERY good info Joan! And GREAT tips! I also wanted to add on the Password note - use upper AND lower case letters and add a number in there! The more things like that that you do, the harder it is to crack!
A GREAT example of a VERY secure password would be - P@ssw0Rd - Notice the capital letter, special character, AND number (zero instead of O). This is an EXAMPLE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS AS YOUR PASSWORD! LOL
Another thing you can do to make it easier to remember is use a common word, but change it like I did above....
Thanks for this info too. I did change my password and take the above advice.
__________________ Cassi R Mom to Tommy born June 5, 2009 ΦΜ �No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.� Eleanor Roosevelt
Location: Lake Bonaparte, NY and New Port Richey, FL
Posts: 279
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
OK....I was just going to look for a thread about this....my account was hijacked last Monday and 7 transactions totaling over $700 has been paid from my checking account!!! Joan's tips were all great....you never think it will happen to you and when it does, it's a nightmare!!! I'm trying to recover my money now....please say a prayer for both Joan and I that we will get our money back.
TIA
Ladies........When you change your password, one way to make sure you don't forget it is to record it in your Address Book. I use MS Outlook.
I put my User ID/passwords in the comments section for each business I have an account with. That way I can remember them when I deal with that business.
But.....no matter what we do, there is always a way that someone can get into out accounts if they want to. There are some people that just spend their day trying different password combinations to get into accounts.
I had an issue with PayPal a few years ago with someone making a withdrawal from my account after my receiving an e-mail from what I thought was PayPal. Stupidly I did disclose personal information (but I did believe the e-mail was from PayPal).
Just words of advice.....all you can do is use caution.
The same thing happened to me Friday, June 13. I had 3 fraudulant transactions on my account totalling more than $1,400.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joan B
I started getting notices of purchases made with my paypal account and immediately went on to paypal's site and challenged the purchases. .
Ditto. One of the emails, thankfully, was from Paypal stating they suspected fraudulant activity on my account and put the account on Hold status.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joan B
Paypal investigated immediately and agreed with me that the purchases were fraudulent..
This process took a week, but eventually all issues were resolved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joan B
However, because the paypal pays the merchant immediately, the request to take the money from my checking account went forward and the money was removed from my checking account anyway!
Yep, same here, even though my husband had called the bank Sunday morning and put a Stop Payment on any and all Paypal transactions. When Monday morning came around and I found the money had been taken from the account, I had to go down to the bank and talk with someone. Apparently, the Customer Service rep didn't do the Stop Payment properly. The person at the bank was great, though, and said all the money would be put back in my account the next day, and it was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joan B
Talking to a live person at paypal takes patience. Be prepared to wait in a long line. .
I didn't have this problem. Although it took several minutes and lots of pushed buttons to get through to a live human, he was very nice and walked me through the whole process of opening an investigation and changing my password.
What was really weird from this whole experience, however, was a phone call from one of the people I "supposedly" purchased something from. He found my phone number via an Internet search and called because he wanted to know why I had reversed my payment and how he was now out $350, blah, blah, blah. He had apparently been IMing with this person about the purchase and even saved the IM messages. He emailed them to me and there was a shortened version of my name with @***.com after it. We don't even have *** accounts! I was floored! After he calmed down, he was actually very helpful and sympathetic.
I emailed the second seller and he pretty much had the same experience as the first seller. He, however, wasn't so nice about it. :rolleyes:
I also emailed the third seller I supposedly purchased something from, but that email came back as undeliverable.
In the end it all worked out, but it was pretty frustrating.
You hear about this kind of stuff all the time, but when it actually happens to you, it really hits home. You feel somewhat violated.
Ultimately we give Paypal too much power. If you do have your Paypal attached to an account use something like a savings account taht you have only to use with your Paypal. I had my Paypal account locked by Paypal because they thought I was someone else. They decided I was associated with another person, decided that their email address awas my new email address (it was not, never has been and I have no access to this email address) and then locked my account until I paid that person's $500+ bill. What? I can't even clost that Paypal account, Paypal won't let me. It's attached to my checking account for crying out loud, what was I thinking? I don't give anyone else access to my checking account, why did I let Paypal have that kind of control over my money? I'm never making that mistake again. I no longer use Paypal at all, instead if I buy from people I use a Postal money order. I have yet to find an instance where I absolutely have to have Paypal. And if I do then I don't need it that badly.
Don't give your checking account info to Paypal, it will be abused!
My account was not hacked into, but was placed on hold. During the day it was placed on hold, after I had taken the steps to take off the hold but before Paypal restored it, I googled frantically, and lots of bad stuff and complaints about Paypal emerged...
So I won't be linking my Paypal account to any of my "real" bank accounts at all. When my limits are reached, I plan to open a separate bank account at a totally different bank just for Paypal, but won't keep anything in it. I don't know if that would work though... maybe they can still take (unauthorized) money out of the empty checking account and then the bank will bill me for overdrafts??
I have my paypal account tied to a separate checking account just for this purpose.
One thing to be careful of are viruses that can record your keystrokes...so if your computer gets the virus you may not know and it can record your keystrokes...
Also you want to be careful if you are using password protected sites in a free WIFI area - where the Wifi isn't password protected or encrypted...
NEVER, ever click on a link within an e-mail supposedly sent to you from Paypal or Ebay...A REAL e-mail from either of them will direct you to go to Paypal and log into your account...there WILL NOT be a click through link...I recieved an e-mail regarding an expired credit card from E-bay and they directed me to go to E-bay and log into my account but did not provide a link to click....
__________________ Jenni -Happy SU Demo - MY GALLERY & MY CHAOTIC LIFE One kid makes you a Parent - Two makes you a Referee
I have my paypal account tied to a separate checking account just for this purpose.
One thing to be careful of are viruses that can record your keystrokes...so if your computer gets the virus you may not know and it can record your keystrokes...
Also you want to be careful if you are using password protected sites in a free WIFI area - where the Wifi isn't password protected or encrypted...
NEVER, ever click on a link within an e-mail supposedly sent to you from Paypal or Ebay...A REAL e-mail from either of them will direct you to go to Paypal and log into your account...there WILL NOT be a click through link...I recieved an e-mail regarding an expired credit card from E-bay and they directed me to go to E-bay and log into my account but did not provide a link to click....
Good points! Same goes for you bank! They will never send you an e-mail with a clickable link!
I do not have my Paypal account attached to any of our joint funds or savings accounts. I opened a seperate bank account at a different bank so that if something happens they cannot affect our family funds. This is such a nightmare ladies...I am so sorry that these awful things happened to you. What a shame that there are so many people out there willing to STEAL from others. Hopefully it will all get straightened out in your favors. Unfortunately, the scum is looking for others right now to rip off too. very sad. Blessings.
This is horrible that it happened to so many people. I just changed my password based on this thread and will also be opening up a separate account for paypal. Thank you so much for this valuable information and for sharing your experience to help prevent it from happening to others.
I got an email recently (and previously also) that looks very much like an official PayPal email. It, of course, says to click this link to update your account due to some problem with it.
If you hold your mouse on that link (don't click), the browser shows the actual link down in the left corner. It was to someone's email-type address, definitely not paypal.
These scams are rampant, so let others know to NEVER go to one of their accounts that contain any credit card/banking info from an email.
Imagine my shock when I came across this post!! I had $250 hacked out of my account this Friday night too! I haven't read all the posts and am heading back to do that now but these had to have been all the same people. So infuriating! I'm extremely careful too, doing all the things you should do changing password regularly and checking email all the time for notices from paypal. It made me feel very venerable and violated. Interesting to know that it happened to so many. She (paypal) told me it would take probably 10 days to get the money back. Opening a small balance account is a great idea, I'm off to do that right away.
Diane :(
Location: If anyone figures that out, PLEASE let me know!
Posts: 4,028
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichelleSG
Ultimately we give Paypal too much power. If you do have your Paypal attached to an account use something like a savings account taht you have only to use with your Paypal. I had my Paypal account locked by Paypal because they thought I was someone else. They decided I was associated with another person, decided that their email address awas my new email address (it was not, never has been and I have no access to this email address) and then locked my account until I paid that person's $500+ bill. What? I can't even clost that Paypal account, Paypal won't let me. It's attached to my checking account for crying out loud, what was I thinking? I don't give anyone else access to my checking account, why did I let Paypal have that kind of control over my money? I'm never making that mistake again. I no longer use Paypal at all, instead if I buy from people I use a Postal money order. I have yet to find an instance where I absolutely have to have Paypal. And if I do then I don't need it that badly.
Don't give your checking account info to Paypal, it will be abused!
I have a Visa with a $250.00 limit that I only use for online purchases. If they do get it, anything over that will be denied AND Visa accepts responsibility for fraudulant purchases. In addition, I do not link it to Pay Pal for the very reasons stated in the thread. You can just do one time purchase entries of you CC and not have it stored in Pay Pal. Since I do that, I have not had any other problems. My DH gets junk all the time from people demanding to have him ship products they claim he sold them on Ebay. He has not sold anything so does not respond. All of these are Phishing tactics and scams no doubt. We actually hardly use Ebay at all anymore because of these problems. If you think PayPal is hard to get on the line, you should try to call someone at Ebay for resolution! Good luck
I looooove to shop online. I'd like to offer a piece of advice that my bank gave me:
Open a separate checking account with only like $100 in it and get a debit card for this account. Use this for your paypal and online shopping. YOU control how much goes into the account and ... no matter who hacks - they can only get up to that $100.
Wow, I had mine hacked into a couple years ago but my credit union was great and immediately placed the money back in my account while I worked with them and paypal to resolve it. Once paypal refunded the money, my credit union got the money back.
Thanks for the warnings and advice!
__________________ Kathy
Proud Mama to Mason 4/3/99, Miles 5/25/02, and Maya 8/26/04
I have closed my pay-pal account, mine was credit, I would never give out my checking account number, but none the less, 2 months ago my account was hacked, my credit card company was aware for it happened to many others, so they resolved it right away, closed my account canceled my credit card and issued me another, then I started getting emails "charges to your pay pal", which I deleted because I no longer had/have pay pal. I was Leary about pay pal to start with, now if I can not contact you by phone I will not buy, we are living in an age of high jackers and robbers of the cyber type, 20/20 did a program how with a lap top and a program a person can sit in his car out side a store and pick up your credit/debit numbers "it blew me away" just how unsafe cyber space really is. This is a good thread to learn from.
__________________ Daughter of a King My Blog
Rebekka
I have closed my pay-pal account, mine was credit, I would never give out my checking account number, but none the less, 2 months ago my account was hacked, my credit card company was aware for it happened to many others, so they resolved it right away, closed my account canceled my credit card and issued me another, then I started getting emails "charges to your pay pal", which I deleted because I no longer had/have pay pal. I was Leary about pay pal to start with, now if I can not contact you by phone I will not buy, we are living in an age of high jackers and robbers of the cyber type, 20/20 did a program how with a lap top and a program a person can sit in his car out side a store and pick up your credit/debit numbers "it blew me away" just how unsafe cyber space really is. This is a good thread to learn from.
_______________________________________________
This why Dh won't let us get Wireless internet. Because the many different ways for someone to hack into your Computer System.
As Becky Stated. Anyone sitting anywhere near you and your are using Wireless, anyone can hack into your system. Steal what they want.
Dh works with Computers and has for many years.
We have a Firewall, Good Virus Protection and we don't have Wireless internet. Just high speed.
No this isn't going to stop a lot of Hackers from getting into our accounts and such. but at least it will take a little longer to do so.
___________________________________
A couple of years ago I had someone steal my CC and sell it to the underground Forums.
And someone tried to make Very large Purchases on my CC account. But my CC company called me and ask if I had been out of the country.
Which I had not!
______________________________________
And I have a Small Checking account which has just enough money to get by with. And I use it for my Paypal account.
This just is tooo outrageous - I don't use paypal but had thought about it now that will NEVER happen. I work to hard for my money + if there is any extra I want to be the one to use it....
__________________ 1 husband, 5 children, 10 grandchildren, Life is Good! IF ALL ELSE FAILS, I READ THE DIRECTIONS
I agree with much of what is being said in this thread, but also realize that no matter how protective we are, if someone wants our account information, there is always a way they can get it.
In reference to my post #11, my bank put a freeze on my account when they saw the large withdrawal that someone was attempting to make via my PayPal account. My bank also calls me if even I make a large purchase or a purchase from somewhere that I don't normally do before they will transfer funds. It's a bit of a hassle at times, but works for my benefit.
I like the idea of a separate account just for PayPal though. Sounds like a good idea.
I'm so sorry for you all. That's awful.
I had my ebay account hacked once. They didn't get far because ebay caught it but it was one of those heart sinking experiences so I can't imagine what you're going through.
I use the paypal security key for ebay and paypal now. Everytime you login to paypal you use your regular password then click a button on the security key and it gives you random numbers to add to your password before you can login. If the numbers aren't correct you're not going to get in. The numbers change every time you use it so it's pretty much impossible to get in to my paypal account. I won't say it will "never" happen but it's unlikely. I also have a wireless encrypted router attached to my desktop pc which really helps to keep out spyware, as well as having a goodfirewall and up to date virus protection.
I'm so sorry this happened to you - that is an awful lot of money and I pray you are able to have it returned to you. I absolutely can't stand dishonest people and those who prey on the innocence and goodness of others - if they would only take 5 minutes thinking of something good and putting it to good use instead of looking for the bad .... ugh.
I, too, had my account hacked. It was actually paypal that alerted me - AFTER the man sold thousands of dollars worth of audio and electronic equipment thru my account. It was dormant, and I had no idea at the time. All the fees and payments due were just wracking up and they sent me a nice "payment due" bill. They never did catch him, paypal erased all the charges, my bank declared all the charges null and void as well and I tried to get the state atty involved but it fell on deaf ears.
But what I learned what that never, ever give access to your MONEY ~ I had it connected to a dormant savings only account. THere wasn't anything to take, thank goodness. I closed that acct, opened up a new one and keep a very low balance. And the CC I keep connected to it now has a ridiculous low balance, too. So if it should ever be hijacked again, well, there won't be anything to take, because sadly, there are times when having paypal has been worth having. Not having this much headache over, but if you do the steps to protect yourself, you can stay ahead of the game sometimes.
I use the paypal security key for ebay and paypal now.
I have this as well. I got mine after I had such trouble when i tried to change my address with them and had to jump through hoops to prove to them who I was! Since my ip address was coming from an overseas location they thought it was compromised....
I believe PayPal has an email address for you to forward any of these phishing, etc. emails. They respond back and confirm that it was fake.
They do - it's [email protected]. I use it any time I get a suspicious e-mail and they usually respond back really quickly to let you know if it's a fake.
This happened to me too! I had at least 10 fraudulent transactions on June 24. They got into my checking account and my credit card! To top it off, I was on vacation and discovered this mess when my debit card was denied at a restaurant. I called my sister so she could check my account and it showed $3700.00 overdrawn!!!!! My credit card had over $2500.00 put on that. That's a total of over $6000.00!!! I am trying to work this huge mess out right now.
I've been on the phone with Paypal, my bank, and my credit card filing disputes. I am optimistic that it will all be reversed, but it may take a while. What a pain in the butt! I have definitely learned a few lessons from this. I am opening a new checking account and will NOT share that info with Paypal.
I am going to subscribe to this thread. I wonder how this happened to so many of us. Has anyone figured out if there is a common tie between us? (Besides that we're all stampers!)
A friend of mine doesn't even have a paypal account, but someone got ahold of her checking account number, which is easy to do, we all use checks, and paid themselves from her checking account to their paypal account $1500, her entire IRS refund. It took a while but she did get the money back. Scary!
__________________ ~Susan He will cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you will find refuge. (Psalm 91:4)
I use the paypal security key for ebay and paypal now. Everytime you login to paypal you use your regular password then click a button on the security key and it gives you random numbers to add to your password before you can login. If the numbers aren't correct you're not going to get in. The numbers change every time you use it so it's pretty much impossible to get in to my paypal account. I won't say it will "never" happen but it's unlikely.
Ditto this. I was coming in to recommend getting the key fob, and am glad someone else mentioned it. I also don't carry this fob with me, so sometimes it even keeps me out of ebay/paypal.
My paypal account too last Saturday had fradulent charges!
900.00 in one time transaction to be exact.
Paypal notified me immediately/ I then contacted them on Sunday and called my credit card company and was the bank first thing Monday morning. Needless to say I had to close that account and open a new one and the biggest lesson learned for me was CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD FREQUENTLY!!!
Paypal Advice
