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Posted by ahernandez74
- January 06, 2014, 18:14:12 PMPaypal is pretty much a monopoly. I've gotten screwed by them multiple times for my money. It's just plain ridiculous and unfair. They can freeze your money in the account without any warning... and they love to play hardball with you. It's almost impossible to try and get the money released... I hate it.
Posted by chief
- December 13, 2013, 20:52:13 PM(Sorry this is a long post. For those who don't want to read it... iMHO Paypal is one of the safest methods of payment on the internet for online purchases, and the safest for payments between individuals. Beware of phishing scams - they get more sophisticated. )
My experience with Paypal is entirely different. People falling for phishing scams is the primary reason for trouble.
I've used paypal extensively for well over 10 years (business and personal). I have researched many different payment processors over the years. We use PP extensively in our businesses and our personal transactions. We recommend PP back-end processing to our customer with online stores. (We used to get a lot of fraudulent orders... paypal has eliminated those for our stores.)
Paypal use by vendors has increased dramatically over the years so I can use it far more often nowadays. They have literally 10's of millions users. Many, many times you are using PP back-end services when you pay online , you just don't know it.
PP has never had a major security breach like many banks etc have. When there is an individual security breach its most likely because the victim fell for one of the many phishing schemes out there, used unsecured wifi hotspots, or computers//phones were hacked.
These phishing scams look like real emails from PP but they link to a fake PP site. When you go in and provide your credentials including a new password, you are giving them the info they need to attack your account - they become you. If you ever get an email telling you to change your password for ANY site where you have left payment info... DON'T CLICK ON THEIR LINK! Get out of the email and go to the link the way you always do. If you need to change the password the site will tell you. Since we have about 1000 email addresses, we have seen many of these.
Lastly, personal checking accounts in the USA are free. With mobile banking you can transfer funds between accounts very easily. You can add an additional layer of protection by opening an account for use solely for online transactions limiting the funds in that account. Of course, credit cards have built in protections as well. Also, we use a dedicated email address for each of our pp accounts. This tells us when we are being phished... they send their fake message to the wrong email address. Also, most PP accounts have a limit on how much can be run through them in a day.
There have been problems with PP in the past, unrelated to security. But, a couple of years ago they got a new CEO who has worked to resolve those issues.
As John indicates its good to keep up with what is going on with your account... just as you would with a bank account.
Posted by 49Reo
- December 12, 2013, 10:13:01 AMYikes! I use PayPal a lot. Better change things....thanks for the warning, John!
Posted by greenbarn
- December 12, 2013, 07:22:31 AMThat's a good warning, John. I never trusted Paypal much, and have heard other bad things as well.
Several years ago, an acquaintance of mine got an email about changing his password, and it was a phishing scheme. He fell for it and gave them his password. The account was attached to his main checking account. His regular paycheck was deposited into this account every payday. Not only did they steal money from his account, but the bank also locked the account for a "criminal investigation". He didn't even have access to HIS OWN MONEY for a few weeks.
Posted by John Hopkins
- December 12, 2013, 03:58:19 AMSome years ago I had a paypal account, at the time I sold a few things and instead of drawing the money out I left it there to use to buy a few things, this way I was always in credit and didn't have to add payments or use a bank card..
After a while I got an email from ebay saying that I had to change my password because someone else was using my account..so I did..
At this point paypal locked me out of my account with them and would not let me back in, I tried to contact them but had no luck in getting past the automated reply system and none of my messages were ever answered..so I lost that account..
Today my son, who has a paypal account received a letter from his bank debit account saying that there was not enough in his account to pay a direct debit payment to paypal of £55.37..This is hardly supprising when you consider that it is a dufunct debit card with only 4p in the account..
Bearing in mind that this is the second time paypal has been used to defraud my family I thought it might be a good idea to warn any of you that still use paypal to take care to check each transaction..
I might even go further and suggest that you close any paypal accounts you may have, Just because you have had no problems yet doesn't mean you won't have any in the future.
The above attempt to obtain £55.37 is just the tip of the iceburg as it is a direct debit, which means that the person collecting the money could empty any account in a very short time.
John.