AZ Beware of fake PayPal money requests

[t korinek]

Not sure where else to post this, but wanted to get the word out .
a lot of my financial accounts & email account were hacked Into last night.

Best I can figure is I received a PayPal request in my email that I was not expecting, when I replied they sent it in error, that’s where they got in.
It was a very tricky phishing scam.

Mods feel free to move this if there’s a better place for it.

Thanks

[68bowtie]

Bummer man. Thanks for the heads up.

[CG]

Seems like a good spot on the board since this is where funds change hands.

[Husker]

Thanks I hope all is well on your end.
Ron

[paulspickupparts]

Sorry to hear about it Tom.

Paypal has become a nightmare. I have several bad experiences this past year and cringe whenever I have to use it.

As a buyer there are several ways to get free or heavily discounted items using paypal . I do not want to give out the details publicly as I do not want to spread the word and encourage others. Plus their security is so poor I hate even using it.

I will add this . I have never had a bad experience using the buyers on this site. I have had a lot on that auction site.

I also had my account hacked but has been over a year ago. That was a nightmare.

[HIGHWAY BY THE SEA]

I was hacked recently too. ALL my accounts: PayPest, FeeBay, Amazon, Banking, and Email. It took me a while to straighten it all out.

[70LonghornCST]

Thank you for posting. Definitely something we all need to be careful of. I stuck this thread on top for all to see.

[paulspickupparts]

Originally Posted by paulspickupparts

Sorry to hear about it Tom.

Paypal has become a nightmare. I have several bad experiences this past year and cringe whenever I have to use it.

As a buyer there are several ways to get free or heavily discounted items using paypal . I do not want to give out the details publicly as I do not want to spread the word and encourage others. Plus their security is so poor I hate even using it.

I will add this . I have never had a bad experience using the buyers on this site. I have had a lot on that auction site.

I also had my account hacked but has been over a year ago. That was a nightmare.

Here is some very important information . It is VERY important you do not have your personal or business bank account linked directly to your paypal account. In other words if you are depositing or withdrawing directly from either of these accounts you are high risk.

My account used to be set up that way and linked to my business account. Luckily I live in a small town and was in my local bank and told the teller (who I personally know ) that I would like to check if a paypal transfer had went thru to deposit funds into my business account. At that moment her eyes became very large and she took me to the side. Here is what she said. If your paypal account is hacked the person now has access to your business account and can totally drain that account also. She had me set up another checking account (I do not write checks on it ) that is used only to receive the deposit . I then either walk into the bank or over the phone and transfer from that account into my business account. Safely .

She also stated that they had numerous bank accounts drained because of being linked to their paypal account. She said that you will get your money back at some point it time but it may take a while to investigate what went wrong. So unless you can be without whatever money you have in your business account you may want to consider setting up a buffer account. when I contacted the paypal rep about this issue she blamed it on the bank. well I have never had trouble with my bank, I have had multiple issues with paypal.

User beware.

[JimKshortstep4x4]

Tom,

Sorry about your problems.

Thank you for posting!

Jim

[t korinek]

Thanks everybody, just about back to normal.
Could have been a lot worse.

Just a huge avoidable hassle!

Paulspickupparts, thanks for the ideas & info.

Tom

[paulspickupparts]

Had a new one yesterday from that auction site. On June 29 I sold a pair of defrost ducts. As I was getting ready to ship I received a message from the site telling me not to ship as it was a suspicious account . If I had shipped they told me to redirect back to my location. So I tried to reach out to the buyer telling them of the situation . I was going to take a screen shot and send to the. I could not . Their account had been closed and were "no longer a registered user" . I tried to relist but that did not work . Almost like it had never happened. I decided it was time to get back to work . Well yesterday I received a note from paypal that they had refunded the buyer the original amount because of and item that was not received. I called paypal . They said because I had not shipped the item it is their policy to refund when an item is not recieved. I offered to send the e-mail that I had saved from ebay and they would not have it . Truly this was a case of a scammer. Not once in 90 days did I receive a message from the buyer . They waited until the very last second to file a claim . Here is the good part. I was never initially paid for the item. ?????????????

[davischevy]

I have had multiple Mastercards over the last 3 years. I get a random charge for an amount under $100 that says it is to PP. I go to PP account and no charge shows there.

I quit paying my CC with auto draft. I check it every week. I have never kept much money in the account I use for PP.

[PICKMUP]

EBAY & PP are NOT safe! Don't link your bank or CC to either of them! They let criminals charge items to us and even ship to someone else. PP was used to get into our bank acct and make big electronic transfers to ??? PP even took $$$ out of our bank to send to some Russian, when we didn't have enough funds left in PP. Both EBAY & PP's answered "They look like normal transactions"---not fraudulent! The money is lost!
We had to change bank accounts and do not know if our bank will correct this or not.

[paulspickupparts]

Originally Posted by paulspickupparts

Here is some very important information . It is VERY important you do not have your personal or business bank account linked directly to your paypal account. In other words if you are depositing or withdrawing directly from either of these accounts you are high risk.

My account used to be set up that way and linked to my business account. Luckily I live in a small town and was in my local bank and told the teller (who I personally know ) that I would like to check if a paypal transfer had went thru to deposit funds into my business account. At that moment her eyes became very large and she took me to the side. Here is what she said. If your paypal account is hacked the person now has access to your business account and can totally drain that account also. She had me set up another checking account (I do not write checks on it ) that is used only to receive the deposit . I then either walk into the bank or over the phone and transfer from that account into my business account. Safely .

She also stated that they had numerous bank accounts drained because of being linked to their paypal account. She said that you will get your money back at some point it time but it may take a while to investigate what went wrong. So unless you can be without whatever money you have in your business account you may want to consider setting up a buffer account. when I contacted the paypal rep about this issue she blamed it on the bank. well I have never had trouble with my bank, I have had multiple issues with paypal.

User beware.

One more time . Please read the above . ^^^^^^^^

Paypal actually blamed my bank for what had happened to my transactions thru paypal.

My bank did everything they could to help me.

Paypal did nothing and blamed my bank.

My bank has been in business over 100 years

Paypal less than 25

Something that does bother me is all the forums specifically say not to send a check or money order . Use paypal to prevent fraud. ???????!!!!!!!

[vics stuff]

I have a lone account set up just for Pay Pal and is not tied to any other accounts that I have .
Vic