[sungwei]

Hello everyone. Recently I have had a serious fraud situation with PayPal. Someone broke into my account and falsified several transactions. Total money taken out of my account was around 2700 dollars. Not only has my bank account been wiped clean there is actually a negative balance of -740 dollars plus I was charged about 120 dollars in overdraft fees. This happened in a very short period of time.

I always was a big advocate of online shopping and financial management. I never thought this could happen to me, but unfortunately it did. I urge all of you to keep a close eye on all of your online accounts especially PayPal. Be weary of all suspicious e-mails, pop ups, and Adware programs. Do not randomly download programs you are not absolutely familiar with. Try your best not to have anything directly attached to your bank account (ie PayPal verified). Be very careful with your personal information.

Identity theft is definitely on the rise and it is only getting worse as this is a new age wave of crime. These criminals have no shame and are merciless. Unfortunately they are also very intelligent and are hard to catch. Right now our best defense is to keep a close watch on all of our personal information.

I pray that this never happens to anyone here. Please forward this message to everyone you know as i feel this is a subject that cannot be taken lightly.

 

[ddevil0013]

wow. sorry to hear that man, hopefully it works out. thanks for the heads up!

 

[Krazy Hawaiian]

Bummer. To be honest no computer connected to the net is 100% secure.

 

[eye speed]

same thing happened to 2 friends of mine. I cancelled my paypal account. Paypal sucks, anyway. you should be able to get your money back thru them. Both of my friends did.

 

[sungwei]

I'm not sure if I should cancel or not because I'm verified and it makes eBay a bit easier. Though I haven't used eBay in a while, sometimes i sell stuff or buy stuff through them. I may just get a dedicated paypal account in my bank so I can put a limited amount in there. Not sure if it's worth the hassle though. Opinions?

 

[bumblebee]

How did they get your personal info/passwords?

 

[timstone]

yea....the question is..how did they get your passwords......are you sure you didnt click a fake link in an email? cause unless you gave it to them or it was a very easy password, then there is no way they could have gotten in

 

[aero3685]

That sucks to hear... I recently wanted to take my bank account off of paypal for obvious reasons.

I emailed, tried the link on their website, called, and they wouldnt do shit. I always buy stuff online, so it sucked. but after about a month, I ended up just deleting my account just to be able to take off my bank account. Unfortunately, I re-signed up and only put a credit card on there... was hoping not to have to deal with them after that lack of customer service issue.

edit: hopefully google will come out with something to take over paypal.. that would be nice.

 

[ubernoob]

someone went the old fashioned way to be me, they took my social (i'm guessing from the grades posting by SSN my con law prof put up by his office) and racked up more than $7k from best buy in two weeks. luckily, the charges were somewhere in the midwest and the last time i was there was when i was 6~7 (i prefer the coast )

 

[bassholic]

I would assume he got suckered into a fake link. To the guy whose social was swiped that sucks, b/c im not sure how to get around that.

Once agian if you ever recieve a link saying verify your info i'd say bypass it or enter fake info and see what happens. Most likely won't re-route you to the correct screen for false info

 

[sungwei]

I would assume he got suckered into a fake link. To the guy whose social was swiped that sucks, b/c im not sure how to get around that.

Once agian if you ever recieve a link saying verify your info i'd say bypass it or enter fake info and see what happens. Most likely won't re-route you to the correct screen for false info

I don't remember doing this, but with all the junk mail in my hotmail account anything is possible. I'm pretty careful bout spam and junk mail.

I think my main problem is I didn't change my password. I need to do this more often.

Paypal is currently investigating and they said once they get my affadavit I should have my money back. Probably by the end of this week. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

[Get_1]

good looking out

 

[bugeyed]

A very simple solution to the identity theft problem is to stop tracking people with ID #'s. The only reason why we all have a number stamped on our forehead is so we can all have a "file" so businesses don't have to take risks when engaging the marketplace. This is completely the outcome of a society where everyone is tracked, recorded, and given a "score" that allows them to open a bank account, rent an apartment. When people steal your number, they can take on your identity.

 

[bzbatl]

I remember reading somewhere that when Social Security numbers were created, they would never be used as a form of identification, but simply to associate Social Security benefits to individuals.

Due to functionality creep, it's hard to do anything in this country without a SSN.

The good ole IRS won't allow you to claim a dependent without a SSN - even though SS isn't administered until 14 or something, and you can't be taxed until that time, legally.

Might as well get a stamp on your head when you're born.

 

[sungwei]

This happened shortly after I e-filed my taxes. I don't think there's any connection but you never know.

 

[sungwei]

Got my money back. Woo Hoo! Kind of like getting a big pay check except you're earning your money twice. Does that make sense. No? Whatever, i got my $ back. Thank God.

 

[kenshi]

And if you get a letter from some guy in Nigeria, ignore it!

More seriously, I sometimes click on those Paypal e-mails and put in false information intentionally. I like to think that maybe I wasted a few seconds of the bastard's time. It's easy to tell they're fake by simply looking at the target url's of the links.

 

[inaccord]

And if you get a letter from some guy in Nigeria, ignore it!

LOL nfloor

but seriously...

You can get 1 free credit report every year by all 3 credit agencies. I suggest to stagger getting them so you can have a way, for free, to check your credit every 4 months or so. It has helped me.