Ughhhhh!!! Thieves STINK!!!

[Aggie_Ama]

I don't ever want to use Paypal again. I have known people who had their accounts hacked and yesterday it was me! I had TEN charges from one merchant I have never used in a foreign country. Luckily my credit card got suspicious and put the kill on that but now I have to wait to see if any are actually charged and file a formal dispute. I have to get a new card and account number but kudos to my CC for calling and throwing the red flags.

I hope much bad karma on this person and then I hope a little more on them. Hackers and thieves suck, there is a special place in hell for those people.

[OakLeaf]

That stinks that happened to you. Hope you get your new card and account number with a minimum of hassle.

PayPal is notorious for lack of security. I use it when there's no alternative and I really, really want something, but only with one credit (NOT debit!) card that has a low credit limit and no other authorized users.

[Aggie_Ama]

Yeah, I don't use my bank account but I couldn't remember why. This is a card with the best security measures and that is why I use it. And I knew Paypal was a cesspool of theft I just live in a bubble where this crap doesn't happen to me, right? WRONG.

I wonder if I go back in after the payment posts and delete the card number if it would help?

[Andrea]

How did they gain access to your account?

[kermit]

I had the same thing happen to my debitcard. Someone in Canada starting paying small bills with it. Thank god that Wachovia caught it. Apparently the thieves will try any account number with a small charge and if it works they keep going. I had about seven charges in five minutes. New card and account and no problems since.

[amelia05]

ugh...my sympathies. The same thing happened to my paypal account a couple weeks ago. 10 charges, about $100. I do use my bank account with paypal (never had problems before), and even though I disputed it immediately, they still haven't put the money back in my account. It'll probably be at least another week before I'll get the money back, since their policy is to settle claims in 30 days. Grr.

I'm pretty sure that my account was compromised when I followed a link to an auction site from a google ad (damn curiosity! ). The unauthorized charges came from that same site the next day. What's irritating (well, MOST irritating) about the whole experience is that even though Paypal flagged the charges as suspicious and restricted my account's send privileges right away, they released the hold as soon as I logged in, before I could tell them that the charges were unauthorized. So, by the time I filed the claims, they had already sent the money. What good was the hold, if they were going to release it without my authorization anyway?

Anyway, I called paypal after that, and they said they had to let the payments go because it was automated (?...whatever), but once the 7-day seller's dispute period had lapsed, it would go back in my bank account. What it actually did is go to my paypal account. Sigh. I'm canceling it as soon as this is resolved.

And yeah, thieves suck.