Ok I just found out that my Paypal account has been compromised and someone has fleeced me dry. This jerk has emptied my checking account through my debit card. I was tipped off by this German software company when they called to verify my purchase of a server. Then again yesterday, a Canadian company called me to verify another monster software purchase. Umm, no. This guy has my address, phone number and debit card number.

While I was at my bank filing all the paperwork to get this resolved and get my money back, she was telling me this is starting to happen VERY often through Paypal. 3 customers in the past week.

True, you may have been using Paypal for years with no problems, just want you all to be aware! I have been taken for $1236 over the past 4 days, so everyone please keep an eye on your funds.

 

Damn sorry to hear that...hope you get the money back somehow
I'll keep this in mind

 

Thx, I only have my credit card registered at paypal, was about to enter my bankinfo, not gonna do that.

 

Damn that sucks!! I hope you can recover your funds. Identity theft is only getting worse. I was hit up by someone using my personal information to order internet access and other **** thru a Canadian company. I didn't notice it at first when I balanced my books because I thought it was one of my daughers ordering school stuff. At least they worked with me to get it straightened out.

 

How exactly is this happening? What do you mean he's using your debit card? Through paypal? Do you have your debit card registered with them or your bank account? Because i have my bank account registered with them, along with my verified address. So anything that gets purchased through paypal can ONLY be shipped to my verified address. In other words, anyone that buys something using my paypal would wind up having the item shipped to my house.

 

Sorry to hear that man! I've had identity theft happen to me on my hotmail and ebay accounts!

Thanks for the warning. BTW, do you think this theft happened online or by someone looking over your shoulder?

 

skiTTlez do you know how they got your info?

Also if I were you I would call one of the software companies that this person ordered from and tell them you may have given them the wrong shipping address and you want to verify the address for shipping. Get the address of the person who took your id and give it to the Feds. IF it's a P.O. Box tell them to change it to the new address and give them yours so at least you'll get the stuff and can return it. If it's too late and everything shipped already tell them it was not received and confirm the address it was shipped to.

 

Dude...if you received an email asking for you to verify your information...that is how they stole the money. I received the same email and sent it to a fraud portion of PayPal. They verified the email had not come from them and that it was a scam.

 

All I got was $7.00 from their previous settlement. but here's useful link.


http://www.paypalsucks.com/

 

Sorry to hear man.

When I joined a long while back, they required a bank account for activation. That prompted me to open a secondary bank account that I only leave $100 in (minimum balance) for Paypal account requisites. I charge all purchases by CC. I made sure that any potential losses (from my direct bank accounts) are limited by providing them with a secondary bank account with little money.

 

I can't tell you how many people that I know (that don't work in the IT industry) that fall for this scam. Most people don't realize how easy such emails are to replicate (as official looking), so they are rather unsuspecting.

 

I set up a paypal account about a year ago for eBay purchases. How do I close or delete the account? Thanks.

 

I am calling these comapnies as we speak and getting the address of the shipments!

I am getting my money bank via my bank. I will have provisional funds in 10 days and the matter will be resolved totally in 45 days.

He (the thief) is not using Paypal to purchase products. He used Paypal to steal my info. I know it is Paypal b/c that is the only time I have ever used the internet to purchase stuff!

 

Very True Yobri, to you and I and most of the people on this board, we would know this as a PHISING scam (thanks e-commerce class =) )

But it will catch the average person off guard.

Point is NEVER SEND INFORMATION THROUGH EMAIL.

 

just go to your info section on Paypal and close it, really simple

 

soooo... a whole site about how paypal sucks because people fall victim to scam sites that look like paypal. man, people really need to take responsibility for their own mistakes. (and that statement in no way is aimed at skittlez)

the scams don't even need to access paypal information to get your email address, by the way. So it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with paypal "being susceptible to scamming." I've gotten those fake emails about ebay and paypal to email addresses that aren't even connected to accounts. I think they are just sent to any number of email addresses at random. They only need to count on a small portion actually having an account and a small portion of those actually responding to the email inquiry to achieve their scamming goal.

As a matter of fact, I've gotten maybe a dozen of those fake emails and I can only remember ONE that was sent to an email address of mine that was connected to Ebay. The rest were sent to my yahoo account, which I've never used to sign up on Ebay or Paypal.

 

How do you know he got the info through the internet at all? I'm not an expert, but your address, phone number, etc, are easily accessible. So the only last misssing component is your debit card number. Sifting through trash is one way to obtain certain info. I could even see (not to give anyone any ideas) someone with, say, a photographic memory, taking a look at your card once ... or maybe someone who works in a retail store where you bought something. There's all kinds of ways, I'm sure. People were being scammed like this long before the internet was around.

 

believe me, i wish somehow this was my fault! that way i wouldn't feel so helpless and sick to my stomach!! i personally haven't experienced any of these emails, so i feel for all of those who have been taken that way as well.

 

another reason I would NEVER link any of my bank accounts to a service like paypal.

 

I recieved a call about 2months ago about verifing my delievery for my "NEW" cell phone. I told the guy I am on my Cell phone now. I went to the bank and my money was gone. The guy who took the money put my address as the bill payer and his actual address as the delievery. With his number. It was crazy. Yet again another fraud case that the local and county cops let fly by. Sickens me.