PayPal account compromised

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

BLAH!!!

Just what we needed right now. There have been unauthorized transactions taking place. The first two were for $450 each!

My debit card got blocked at the store earlier (how embarrassing!) so I knew something was up. Got home and checked account online and there it was, instant transfers from paypal to some idiotic names, four total. Called PayPal (why the heck don't those guys have a 800 number? Had to go buy a calling card for long distance). After being on the phone for half an hour, finally got through to an agent and I think we've resolved the problem.

Was kinda creepy, logging onto Paypal and the website language was Chinese for some reason.

Anyway, it'll be a few days before we get our money back. Ugh! Good thing last Friday was payday.

[Dakine 26]

BLAH!!!

Just what we needed right now. There have been unauthorized transactions taking place. The first two were for $450 each!

My debit card got blocked at the store earlier (how embarrassing!) so I knew something was up. Got home and checked account online and there it was, instant transfers from paypal to some idiotic names, four total. Called PayPal (why the heck don't those guys have a 800 number? Had to go buy a calling card for long distance). After being on the phone for half an hour, finally got through to an agent and I think we've resolved the problem.

Was kinda creepy, logging onto Paypal and the website language was Chinese for some reason.

Anyway, it'll be a few days before we get our money back. Ugh! Good thing last Friday was payday.

I had to close all my bank accounts because of a PayPal snafu!

Don't use it any more.

[jundp 191]

Yikes! That's crazy. I've had a PayPal account for about 7or 8 years and never had a problem. In fact I use it when I'm in Germany because I have a set amount I transfer so I don't overspend what I budgeted.

That's freaking scary. Hope you get it all back soon.

[Ban Hammer 12,861]

BLAH!!!

Just what we needed right now. There have been unauthorized transactions taking place. The first two were for $450 each!

My debit card got blocked at the store earlier (how embarrassing!) so I knew something was up. Got home and checked account online and there it was, instant transfers from paypal to some idiotic names, four total. Called PayPal (why the heck don't those guys have a 800 number? Had to go buy a calling card for long distance). After being on the phone for half an hour, finally got through to an agent and I think we've resolved the problem.

Was kinda creepy, logging onto Paypal and the website language was Chinese for some reason.

Anyway, it'll be a few days before we get our money back. Ugh! Good thing last Friday was payday.

a chinese paypal? have you checked out your computer for spyware?

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

BLAH!!!

Just what we needed right now. There have been unauthorized transactions taking place. The first two were for $450 each!

My debit card got blocked at the store earlier (how embarrassing!) so I knew something was up. Got home and checked account online and there it was, instant transfers from paypal to some idiotic names, four total. Called PayPal (why the heck don't those guys have a 800 number? Had to go buy a calling card for long distance). After being on the phone for half an hour, finally got through to an agent and I think we've resolved the problem.

Was kinda creepy, logging onto Paypal and the website language was Chinese for some reason.

Anyway, it'll be a few days before we get our money back. Ugh! Good thing last Friday was payday.

a chinese paypal? have you checked out your computer for spyware?

Yes and I do that regularly, also ran BitDefender, nothing showed up.

In the meantime, I went to the bank and closed our checking account and opened a new one. PayPal is still investigating but the bank credited us the money back from the unauthorized transactions and will be monitoring everything for a while. Also filed a report with the police and they'll be in touch with us.

All we can do now is wait for PayPal, I suppose. And then close the darned account as soon as we get our money back from them.

[Toshtishtash 1]

Another way it could have happened is if you replied to any spoof emails? I get them sometimes saying that Paypal need to reconfirm my details and that I should click on the link in the email. It then sends you to a page that looks exactly like Paypal (No different!) but it's a fake one that has been set up by scammers... It asks you to login.

Bam. Someone has your log in details and access to your account. It is sooooo easily done.

Do you think something like that could have happened?

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

Another way it could have happened is if you replied to any spoof emails? I get them sometimes saying that Paypal need to reconfirm my details and that I should click on the link in the email. It then sends you to a page that looks exactly like Paypal (No different!) but it's a fake one that has been set up by scammers... It asks you to login.

Bam. Someone has your log in details and access to your account. It is sooooo easily done.

Do you think something like that could have happened?

I really have no idea. I'd have to ask hubby, his email account is the one we set up PayPal with.

You don't think that would show up in a spyware sweep through my cookies etc.? I don't know.

[jazzette 0]

I had someone e-mail me about my pay pal account and it's password. I called paypal and forwarded the e-mail to them. They told me that it was someone fisching for my password.

After that, I clicked on it just to look and it does look exactly like pay pal.

BEWARE

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

called phishing

[Ban Hammer 12,861]

Another way it could have happened is if you replied to any spoof emails? I get them sometimes saying that Paypal need to reconfirm my details and that I should click on the link in the email. It then sends you to a page that looks exactly like Paypal (No different!) but it's a fake one that has been set up by scammers... It asks you to login.

Bam. Someone has your log in details and access to your account. It is sooooo easily done.

Do you think something like that could have happened?

I really have no idea. I'd have to ask hubby, his email account is the one we set up PayPal with.

You don't think that would show up in a spyware sweep through my cookies etc.? I don't know.

spyware cookies are tracking cookies. tracking cookies, as far as i've know, don't function as data miners in that regard. a trojan horse like a keylogger will. i run two different anti-spyware programs as the program is only as good as the programmers that write the updates.

any emails you get in regards to paypal, bank accounts, etc - check them out by this method: hover the mouse over the links in the email and watch the lower left (in internet explorer) and it will show the real website address in that link. every phishing email i get it may say http:www.paypal.com in the link but in the lower left it will show something like http:www.randomwebsite.com for example. never click on the link to check your account - always type in the address or use a bookmarked link to get there. also when you do go to the website you want to go to (paypal, banking, etc) insure that the closed lock appears in the lower right of ie and that the address reads "https"

you can also use reverse ip lookup to see where the email originated from. lately i've been getting a buncha emails outta korea out on a phishing expedition.

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

Another way it could have happened is if you replied to any spoof emails? I get them sometimes saying that Paypal need to reconfirm my details and that I should click on the link in the email. It then sends you to a page that looks exactly like Paypal (No different!) but it's a fake one that has been set up by scammers... It asks you to login.

Bam. Someone has your log in details and access to your account. It is sooooo easily done.

Do you think something like that could have happened?

I really have no idea. I'd have to ask hubby, his email account is the one we set up PayPal with.

You don't think that would show up in a spyware sweep through my cookies etc.? I don't know.

spyware cookies are tracking cookies. tracking cookies, as far as i've know, don't function as data miners in that regard. a trojan horse like a keylogger will. i run two different anti-spyware programs as the program is only as good as the programmers that write the updates.

any emails you get in regards to paypal, bank accounts, etc - check them out by this method: hover the mouse over the links in the email and watch the lower left (in internet explorer) and it will show the real website address in that link. every phishing email i get it may say http:www.paypal.com in the link but in the lower left it will show something like http:www.randomwebsite.com for example. never click on the link to check your account - always type in the address or use a bookmarked link to get there. also when you do go to the website you want to go to (paypal, banking, etc) insure that the closed lock appears in the lower right of ie and that the address reads "https"

you can also use reverse ip lookup to see where the email originated from. lately i've been getting a buncha emails outta korea out on a phishing expedition.

Yes, thank you, Charles. I know how that works.

But hubby doesn't. So like I said earlier, not sure whether he got an email like you described or not.

Anyhow, there is no easy way of finding out now, I run cleaners and sweepers every other day on this machine.

Thank you all for the advice!

[de_sjiem 0]

Another thing to watch out for is that Paypal will ALWAYS use your name in an email (the name on file) All the phishing emails I've gotten just say "valued Paypal member" or something like that...

[Welshcookie 17]

Another way it could have happened is if you replied to any spoof emails? I get them sometimes saying that Paypal need to reconfirm my details and that I should click on the link in the email. It then sends you to a page that looks exactly like Paypal (No different!) but it's a fake one that has been set up by scammers... It asks you to login.

Bam. Someone has your log in details and access to your account. It is sooooo easily done.

Do you think something like that could have happened?

Oh bum.......I had an email like that last week.

[Toshtishtash 1]

Another way it could have happened is if you replied to any spoof emails? I get them sometimes saying that Paypal need to reconfirm my details and that I should click on the link in the email. It then sends you to a page that looks exactly like Paypal (No different!) but it's a fake one that has been set up by scammers... It asks you to login.

Bam. Someone has your log in details and access to your account. It is sooooo easily done.

Do you think something like that could have happened?

Oh bum.......I had an email like that last week.

If you clicked on it and logged in, change your password quickly!

[Toshtishtash 1]

Another way it could have happened is if you replied to any spoof emails? I get them sometimes saying that Paypal need to reconfirm my details and that I should click on the link in the email. It then sends you to a page that looks exactly like Paypal (No different!) but it's a fake one that has been set up by scammers... It asks you to login.

Bam. Someone has your log in details and access to your account. It is sooooo easily done.

Do you think something like that could have happened?

Oh bum.......I had an email like that last week.

If you clicked on it and logged in, change your password quickly!