Die, hacker/thief/effer!

The BBQ Pit
1

Late last week some unknown entity managed to send itself almost 1K from my bank account through my PayPal account.

I, of course, didn’t find out until I came home from “vacation” to a nice notice of numerous NSF charges from my bank.

Call the bank, the woman didn’t quite grasp that my bank account didn’t get directly hacked, my PayPal account was. Didn’t matter, since the bank account was tied she shut it all down. Spent 2 hours today opening new bank accounts, dipwad tried his hardest to upsell me to the wonderful accounts I would benefit from blahblah. Ya know, just fucking open new accounts for me, okay? You need to check if you can waive the overdraft fees from my (now) old account? You have NO idea how this will be resolved?

Have been in contact multiple times to the fraud department of the bank - NO I didn’t give my password out. NO I do NOT click through random emails. Again, had to explain that PayPal was compromised, not the bank website.

Call PayPal. NO I didn’t give my password out, so on and so forth. No, I do not know someone from (X) Company that I would send multiple payments for - I won’t even shop at that company, let alone send him/her/it almost 1K. Have a nifty affidavit I need to fill out. I wonder if they’ll pay for the long distance charges I’ve racked up calling them?

I’ve had to borrow money to get through this week. I’ve spent the majority of today changing emails, account information, calling businesses I deal with to change info. Another precious vacation day used to recreate myself financially.

I hope you die of a million papercuts, laced with lemon juice, fuckhead. I’ve long been a proponent of using the 'net for transactions - if I could use PayPal to send money I would, thinking it would be a safe way to transfer money. Gah.

I’m worn out. Frustrated. I would rather have had someone take money directly from my wallet than this ephemeral net theft.

2

This is why, when using Paypal, you add a card only for the transaction you wish to conduct, and then withdraw it again.

They cant spend your money if they cant access your means to pay.

This is a pain in the backside, but after a while you get to remember all your card details and it doesnt take much longer once you have.

3

For the benefit of others, what type of entity was charging you repeatedly?

4

Yes, please. Any idea how they hacked your account?

5

removes bank from paypal account

6

Actually, I’ve found it dandy to use credit cards NOT linked to my bank on PayPal. That way, it’s the card company that chases aforementioned fuckhead down, and you keep your hard earned cashola.

7

Sorry to hear about it Missy…that and your mom’s neighbors.

8

I opened a WAMU account (free checking, no minimum balance), linked to PayPal, just to handle this problem. I only keep a few bucks in it.

9

Unfortunately I did not HAVE a “regular” credit card that I could have linked my PayPal account to. I made so few transactions that I never though to open another bank account to deal with only PayPal stuff.

The money went to Starbucks. Do not know why, who, what - nothing. Only that a large sum of money was sent to a nasty coffee house. I don’t even drink the foul brew!

I’m still livid over the whole situation.

10

So, someone logged onto the paypal account.

They transferred $1000 from your bank account to your paypal account.

They made $1000 worth of payments to a Starbucks?

Are those the facts of the case?

I get an email when I make a transfer, or a transaction. Didn’t you get such a thing? Or did you miss all such emails on vacation?

11

Close. It would be more like:

Someone logged onto the paypal account.
They made $1000 worth of payments to a Starbucks.
PayPal pulls money from the linked bank account.
Emails from “service@paypal.com” go ignored while the mark is on vacation and away from the computer.

12

Can you figure out the location of the Starbucks?

13

PayPal would do that? Or is that an option? I didn’t think PayPal would do that.

Anyway, I looked at the OP’s posting history. It seemed odd to me that someone today wouldn’t check their email for a week, but she was off the dope for a week, so I guess it’s feasible.

So, does the OP know someone who would have known she was away for a week?

And, how does a $1000 payment to Starbucks work? Did goods get shipped somewhere? Did someone top-off a gift card? Did someone do this to just hassle the OP?

Anyway. . .I’d lay odds that the OP knows the person because of the timing of the theft. Someone that knows some of the OP’s passwords.

14

Exactly. We barely had cell phone service in the corn field, let alone net connection.

I do not know what Starbucks, where, who - nothing. Just that the money went to a Starbucks.

One thing I have noticed today is when I have logged into PayPal - using my nifty new password - I get an email stating I have requested a password reminder. No… no I haven’t. I know my new password. I again call PayPal, “Ed” explained spoof emails (durr) etc, ignoring my whole “Dude, there is another huge issue with my account and I’m wondering if they’re tied”.

15

When you make a payment using PayPal, they can either take the money out of your bank account or charge it to your credit card, depending on which option/default you’ve chosen. I think (though I’m not sure) that the former is preferred by the payee because the credit card company doesn’t add on a service charge.

16

What do you mean? Someone managed to transfer him/herself a buttload of my money from my bank account that was tied to the debit card that was tied to my PayPal account

Erm, hunh? FWIW I use my work email for primary daily communication. My other email accounts usually are checked once/day or once EO day. I WAS OUT OF TOWN from Thursday 9am until Sunday Noon. I had not checked my bank account online as I figured I had money - I DID until this occurred.

More than a few people knew - I posted it here on the Dope. The Doper poker players knew. However, the email account I have for the Dope is NOT the same email account tied to PayPal. Until this, I was the only person to access the PayPal account.

No fucking clue. I called Starbucks and the guy also had no clue. It’s not just a hassle though. It’s become a huge mess and I’ve been in tears pretty much since Sunday.

The only person who may know SOME of my passwords was my daughter. The theft occurred on Wednesday. She did not access the computer the entire day - I was with her all day. While I was on vacation she did not have computer access at all.

17

Do you leave your passwords written down anywhere? If so, anyone who was in your home could have jotted down a password or two.

Sorry about your rotten luck.

18

And if you’ve gotten an email telling you that you’ve requested a password reminder you should probably change your email password as well. That may be how someone got enough information to guess your paypal password.

They requested the hint and deleted it from your email before you saw it. Especially easy if you have web access to your email.

ETA: Change ALL your passwords, starting with email.

19

Done. All passwords changed for everything.

20

uh-oh.