Ever had your Paypal account hacked?

Discussion in Payment Methods started by addicted_buyer • Aug 2, 2012.

  1. addicted_buyer

    addicted_buyerExpert

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    Have you ever had your Paypal account hacked? What happened?

    Luckily for me, I haven't.
     
    #1Aug 2, 2012
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2012
  2. Livvi

    LivviActive Member

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    I haven't but I have heard, usually via forums, of some horror stories. What bothers me about Paypal is they never seem to side with the actual victim. I know, like anything, they have to investigate but everything seems geared towards making the experience as stressful as possible for the victim. Their investigations always seem to take forever as well, which must be frustrating!!
     
  3. Jatelo2

    Jatelo2Active Member

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    Never heard about that. However it is very possible especially the unverified accounts. I'm also trying to imagine what I'm supposed to do in case that happens since I didn't see it in the Paypal's FAQ?
     
  4. professionaltightwad

    professionaltightwadMember

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    I have had my account hacked, back about 3-4 years ago. They attacked my personal account, which I rarely use, so I didn't even realize it yet, when PayPal called me and asked if I had authorized a purchase. I jumped online and checked and then pretty much wigged out. The thief had wiped out the over $400 in my bank account! It ended up being over $500 by the time it was over.

    PayPal put a freeze on the account so no further charges could be made and then went to work on recovering my money. I did get it all back, except for $25 that covered a stop payment order to my bank. I had to do that in order to end this faster, otherwise it would have dragged on at least another week.

    I didn't even know PayPal ever called people like that and to have them check with me because of suspicious behavior made me feel good about using them. Without their watchfulness, I wouldn't have known until I received the overdraft fee notices from my bank!

    By the way, it has nothing to do with whether an account is verified or not, because my account was fully verified and had been for years. My hacking was my own fault and I knew better - I had used the same password on my email and my PayPal account. I have a bad memory so I like to make things easy (bad idea). When my email was hacked, the scum-balls simply tried the password and email combination and got lucky.
     
    #4Aug 2, 2012
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2012
  5. dissn_it

    dissn_itActive Member

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    I have never had a problem with my PayPal account and hopefully, never will. It sounds like it would be quite the nightmare to deal with!
     
  6. kristig5

    kristig5New Member

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    I also am fortunate to never have it happen, thank goodness! It sounds like it was handled appropriately, but what a mess! Unfortunatly, I also have a horrible memory, and tend to use the same couple of passwords. I should really change some of them, especially the ones that deal with money! Thanks for the heads up about that!
     
  7. micromachne

    micromachneMember

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    Not that I'm aware of. But honestly, none of us can say for sure. A few years ago, Paypal was hacked. But in most accounts, no money was touched. Some of those unstolen from accounts could have been any of ours without knowing.
     
  8. MoniqueSeibel

    MoniqueSeibelActive Member

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    I haven't yet, thankfully. After reading some stories though, I went and changed my password to a very long, random password to help avoid this very issue. But I have also heard they are a very secure website. But I also don't keep much money in my account, I withdraw to my back account whenever I have $150.
     
  9. marvelz

    marvelzActive Member

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    Not hacked but attempted. I was sent an email from a fake paypal site. The email looked exactly the same as those sent from paypal, apart from the top line which read "dear member", instead of my actual name. Furthermore, the email requested that I signed into my account from that email because someone had tampered with my personal information.

    I clicked the url in the email and very nearly signed into the fake paypal site. The only reason I didn't was because I decided to re-read the email and make further inquiries on paypal.com. After which I found out they never refer to you as "dear member" and never ask for your details. This made me livid so I joined a site called "thescambaiter.com" and now I actively hunt down scammers, play the role of a very convincing victims and have fun with them. I make them jump through MY hoops now, and keep them busy as much as I can so they have less time to do it to other people.:)
     
    #9Aug 2, 2012
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2013
  10. ssamcd

    ssamcdMember

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    Wow this is something I am always nervous about. I withdraw money everyday from paypal to my personal account. I do not feel comfortable leaving any money in my paypal account. At least your bank is responsible if someone hacks into the account. My bank account is on line, so sometimes I get worried but I have never had a problem. My password for my paypal, my email, and my bank account are all different passwords. Hope this will keep everything safe. That is one nightmare I never want to have happen to me.
     
  11. Adeal4u

    Adeal4uActive Member

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    I have had mine hacked once, but it was my own fault. There was a program that tells you to enter your PayPal password, and they will credit your account with 1,000 dollars. I knew it was a scam, so I opened a bogus account just to see if this was true. After I entered the password I got an email from PayPal stating that someone was trying to use my account. Paypal put a freeze on my account and they made me change my password. They went after the people that hacked into my account, so I was thankful they pursued the issue. I would advise anyone to stay away from things that are too good to be true.
     
  12. trident252

    trident252Member

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    It's never happened to me but I know people that it has happened to. It's like the worst fear of every online shopper. I try to take as many precautions as possible because I have heard the horror stories first hand. It's like the hacking was bad enough, then you have to make all of the phone calls to correct and change everything.
     
  13. leyash

    leyashActive Member

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    No, I have never had my Paypal hacked. Of course, came close... but it didn't actually happen. Glad that it didn't, either.
     
  14. NopGuy

    NopGuyActive Member

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    Never had mine hacked, and I hope it never will be. Honestly I'm scared that one day, PayPal will be hacked and the results will be disastrous.
     
  15. Pat

    PatWell-Known Member

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    My account has never been hacked, I have heard of people having their accounts frozen by PayPal with large sums of money in the account that can not be used until PayPal was convinced the account was not bogus.
     
  16. Adeal4u

    Adeal4uActive Member

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    There are lots of videos on YouTube that show people getting their accounts frozen because large sums of money is being deposited. I don't mess around with that anymore because you're dealing with money, and I'm sure you can face some jail time. Thankfully they didn't hack my real PayPal account because that would be a headache trying to sort that mess out.
     
  17. miapass

    miapassNew Member

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    My personal Paypal has never been hacked. My sister however, has not been so lucky. She woke up one morning to find her Paypal account emptied. I felt so bad for her because it was a large amount of money that had been taken. Apparently someone who used the same library computer after her knew how to view previous passwords entered on that particular computer. This person then logged on to my sisters Paypal and had her money transferred to a bank account that was created under a false identity. They never caught the thief because that library didn't keep record of it's internet users.
     
  18. mountainside

    mountainsideActive Member

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    I do not keep a balance in my paypal account. Neither have I had the account hacked, knock on wood. But my sister had her account hacked and a good bit of money taken out.
    She received the money back, but it was a hassle.
     
  19. gina121

    gina121Active Member

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    No, never.. thankfully, although I've received quite a few spam mails from hackers pretending to be from paypal, asking me to click on a link and entering my password (yeah, sure!). I suppose even if an unauthorized payment has gone from our paypal account, we should receive an email about the purchase made, like we always do with all purchases made using paypal. This should be enough to alert us and help us salvage the situation quickly.
     
  20. marvelz

    marvelzActive Member

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    That's a good tip. Keeping it empty of funds just in case. ;)