Reminder about Paypal Security

Pkirk618

Pkirk618

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
5,737
Okay, got an email from paypal--at least I think it's them. It says my language prefs were changed. Followup emails were in Chinese.

Logged into paypal and it put me through re-verifying and changing acct info and passwords. Okay, I'll do this. I verified this was Paypal asking too.

Called Paypal to see why I received emails about language prefs changed (I never read the emails, just right clicked source). They said....

Paraphrasing here....

Your account was accessed by someone we thought, by the actions they were taking (language change), that your account was being accessed by someone else. We in turn requested all the information you re-verified for security.

I asked who accessed my account. Though they don't know names or wouldn't tell me, they can/did tell me the location. Someone on the west coast accessed my account and tried to change preferences.

I think I've become too laxed lately. I just wanted use this opportunity to remind everyone what can happen with PP, even if you already know.
 
Get the keyfob that Paypal offers. Every time I log in, it makes me enter my password, plus the random 6 digit code the fob generates every 20 seconds. WELL worth the $10 or whatever it cost.
 
entropism said:
Get the keyfob that Paypal offers. Every time I log in, it makes me enter my password, plus the random 6 digit code the fob generates every 20 seconds. WELL worth the $10 or whatever it cost.
Click to expand...

Stronger password + FOB FTW, I think mine was $5, maybe $10 was right.
 
Monkey34 said:
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

+2


entropism said:
Get the keyfob that Paypal offers. Every time I log in, it makes me enter my password, plus the random 6 digit code the fob generates every 20 seconds. WELL worth the $10 or whatever it cost.
Click to expand...
Kindof sucks when you don't have the FOB with you and you're at someone else's place on or vacation and just HAVE to get that deal...

Good password and monitoring your accounts are the best measures... I use Quicken Online, it pulls my bank's transactions once per day (Good budgeting/tracking tool if anyone wants one- stupidly easy to setup). I can configure SMS and emails to alert me if any charges go through over $XXX...
 
TechieSooner said:
+2



Kindof sucks when you don't have the FOB with you and you're at someone else's place on or vacation and just HAVE to get that deal...

Good password and monitoring your accounts are the best measures... I use Quicken Online, it pulls my bank's transactions once per day (Good budgeting/tracking tool if anyone wants one- stupidly easy to setup). I can configure SMS and emails to alert me if any charges go through over $XXX...
Click to expand...

My phone is my second FOB, sends me a text with the number. Or you can tell it that you don't have it on you and it will ask you security questions. So, there is no reason not to get it.
 
Lugztaz said:
My phone is my second FOB, sends me a text with the number. Or you can tell it that you don't have it on you and it will ask you security questions. So, there is no reason not to get it.
Click to expand...

So then my question is what the hell good is it if you can bypass it with security questions?
 
TechieSooner said:
Good password and monitoring your accounts are the best measures...
Click to expand...


Usually, I would agree, however, there was a reason I got the fob in the first place...

I'm in my office one afternoon, collecting everyone's order for lunch... I just had a deal go through and I was treating a few teams to a meal as a thanks. Call in the order, and my debit card is declined. Turns out Paypal withdrew $900 that morning. I'm shocked, because I hadn't used paypal (or ebay) in about 9 months.

So I investigate, and it turns out some guy in Asia (I want to say Singapore) ordered 3 bootleg iphones off ebay for $300 each. I now had $100 in my account, and Paypal says they won't refund my money until they investigate, which ended up taking 10 days.

So yeah, my password is strong, I ONLY logged in on my home computer (which I knew was malware free), yet some guy STILL got me. Sooo.... Fob FTW.
 
My ebay account got hacked not to long ago. They tried to buy $5000 worth of stuff. :rolleyes: My password even had upper/lower case, numbers, symbols and was +10 characters long. I have no idea how they got it.

They deactivated my account and I have not reactivated or used ebay since.
 
entropism said:
So yeah, my password is strong, I ONLY logged in on my home computer (which I knew was malware free), yet some guy STILL got me. Sooo.... Fob FTW.
Click to expand...

So again, what good is it if you can take an option to bypass it?
Seems to me it'd only be truly secure if you were forced to use it. And if you were forced to use it and don't have it, it'd be a PITA...
 
I guess the security questions could be better, but my question is why doesn't PayPal have the option to turn on "Additional authentication" without having to use the FOB thing (I looked it up and you can signup for the mobile version for free)? I mean, it'd be the same level of security as this FOB or Text verification thing.
 
I was given the PayPal dongle thingy for free when my account got hacked. Maybe they'll do the same? Funny think was I used a fairly secure password unique to my PayPal account, go figure. Anyway, the dongle is sweet, haven't had problems since.

P.S. In my case it was some A-hole who purchased game time for something called "Tibia Online." I got my justice by using the transaction receipt to get my 'lost' account info, which promptly had every character deleted.
 
TechieSooner said:
So again, what good is it if you can take an option to bypass it?
Seems to me it'd only be truly secure if you were forced to use it. And if you were forced to use it and don't have it, it'd be a PITA...
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware you COULD bypass it. And I have it on my keychain, so if I don't have it with me, I have worse issues than "not getting in on a great deal".
 
Thanks OP, I didn't even realize you had additional security options with Paypal but I signed up for the text/mobile FOB option since it was free. That additional layer is nice and it looks like you can put that on your flea-bay account as well which is nice.

Now if only my banks would do something like that... :rolleyes:
 
I signed up for the mobile one as well...
It's kindof crazy that you have to signup for the FOB option to get the additional security questions at logon (in essense that's all you get, being you can bypass the FOB).
 
I got notice on dec 23 that someone hacked my account. bought a quad xenon cpu for $800. Found out cause I was gonna preorder STO. they had a hold on the trans but decided to let it go through.:mad: Anyways, such a wonderful xmas gift to me. a neg balance in bank at the same time i need oil... still waiting on the freakin dispute with paypal. day 5.. Going to my bank tomorrow to also fill out paper work. stupid tellers told me I couldn't while paypal was disputing but called the banks fraud unit and they said to head to bank and do it. doesn't matter if paypal is in dispute also.
dont understand the dispute. i have a verified address and this is not me...

Shipping Address on paypal transaction:
Adam Whitten
1325 North 6th Street, Apt. 12
Albemarle , NC 28001
United States

doubt hacker would be dumb enough to have his own info but found this guy on myspace/facebook. gotta love the internet
 
Last edited:
Was it on a Credit/Debit card? Like a Debit card run through visa? If so, Visa might be able to help you as well.
 
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