Paypal was hacked/had unauthorized user-venting

CamMcIntyre · #1 04-07-2009, 09:35 PM

Hello,

So yeah, when I got home from my Sunday Theater gig, I had an email from Paypal saying that a payment had been initiated about 10-20mins before I got home. My first thought was "I'm not selling anything..." followed by "uh oh."

I also had an email from Paypal about how they were investigating a potential unauthorized user on my account...and that a credit card was removed. If memory serves, the credit card was one that had expired awhile back. I reported that as a change too.

[Sunday night] I filed a dispute on the payment & change in credit card information with Paypal. Immediately, I changed my passwords for all the related sites. E.g. Ebay, Paypal, credit card company, and Chase.

So, I called Chase the next day [Monday] to see if they could block any charges to my account coming from Paypal. They said no since the charge hadn't actually happened yet. I thought, Ok, nothing has happend with my account yet, so I won't worry.

Today, Tuesday, I checked my account about an hour ago. I see that I have a negative balance...the PayPal thing went through. I called my bank-the dispute services were closed. So I called Paypal. They said the funds are on their way back to my account and should be credited within 10 days. The website said that claims take up to 30 days to complete. 30 days from the 5th is exactly when my rent is due.

I'm calling Chase as soon as I wake up to dispute the charge and see what I can get done. I feel like since I called to have this very charge blocked, they should be able to do something about it...at the very least, not hit me with over draft fees, at max (doubtful) reverse the charge. Because if they do for the charges I've made today, I'm screwed. We're talking at least $120 if not closer to $200 in over draft fees as I made 2 purchases today and several items from yesterday hit today.

The amount of the hack/unauthorized was $496. That's almost a month's rent for me. In the mean time between what I had in my account and what I'm getting this weekend, it was bill money and a large chunk of May's rent. If Paypal or Chase drags their feet...I'll be seeing if I can do a Loan via the Bank of Dad until it does get sorted out.

Any wisdom or advice from people who have dealt with similar stuff? I'm mainly annoyed and frustrated. I'm in a relatively stressful span of 2 weeks, and having this be in on it just irritates me.

all the best.

Jimmy Bones · #2 04-08-2009, 01:46 AM

Yea, I have a guitard buddy who had this happen to him. Navy Federal Credit Union refused to block the charge until he brought a lawyer in with him to the branch manager's office. He'd have been out almost two grand on the charge plus overdraft. He spent half of that on the couple hours with the lawyer.

Paypal took 33 days to resolve the dispute.

Relic · #3 04-08-2009, 05:08 AM

you have to be real careful too. Even the email indicating that you had a payment pending could be a phishing scam. I've seen a few of them over the years.

Sounds like you're doing what you should be doing to get it straightened out. Hit up the Bank of Dad so you don't default on any rent/bills. It will take a while but it will work out. The only real crappy thing though, is that I'm really not sure anything can be done about the overdrafts..

rustynuts · #4 04-08-2009, 06:20 AM

Did you log in to your PayPal account from either of those two emails? If so, that's probably how they got your login information and password. If not, you need to figure out how they did so you don't allow it to happen again.

The best way to avoid phishers at eBay and PayPal is to set your email preferences to "Text only". This way, phishers can't hide the web and email addresses behind slick HTML coding and you'll be able to see the actual address you're clicking on.

CamMcIntyre · #5 04-08-2009, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rustynuts

Did you log in to your PayPal account from either of those two emails? If so, that's probably how they got your login information and password. If not, you need to figure out how they did so you don't allow it to happen again.

The best way to avoid phishers at eBay and PayPal is to set your email preferences to "Text only". This way, phishers can't hide the web and email addresses behind slick HTML coding and you'll be able to see the actual address you're clicking on.

Good point.

However, I didn't use the emails. I remember reading too many times about cloaked/fake sites getting information that way.

I'm not sure how they initiated the payment to be honest. I changed my password, and starting using a secure key via my cell phone for Paypal. I'm not sure if I had some sort of virus or what. I need to upgrade from BitDefender Free back to the Kapersky thing.

UPDATE

I called my bank, Chase, this morning. They said I should have my money back by the end of the day today including any/all overdraft fees associated with this. I have a form I need to fax into them. I'm leaving in about 5mins to go do this.

I spent maybe 5mins on the phone with them. Last night, I spent 10mins or less on the phone with Paypal. Now as long as things work out the way these people say they will, I'll have my money back tonight/tomorrow.

rustynuts · #6 04-08-2009, 08:19 AM

Good luck with it.

iamthebassplayr · #7 04-08-2009, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CamMcIntyre

UPDATE

I called my bank, Chase, this morning. They said I should have my money back by the end of the day today including any/all overdraft fees associated with this. I have a form I need to fax into them. I'm leaving in about 5mins to go do this.

I spent maybe 5mins on the phone with them. Last night, I spent 10mins or less on the phone with Paypal. Now as long as things work out the way these people say they will, I'll have my money back tonight/tomorrow.

That's awesome that they are taking care of it. Best of luck for a speedy resolution in the end.

This stuff scares the crap out of me hahaha..

Jimmy Bones · #8 04-08-2009, 01:39 PM

The words 'Identity Theft' will usually make a bank jump up and help you pretty quick.

CamMcIntyre · #9 04-08-2009, 05:24 PM

Wow....Chase handled this faster than I ever thought they would.

It's now about 8-9 hours later and my account has been credited. I still have some work to do with paypal...but now I have my money back.

scottyd · #10 04-08-2009, 06:47 PM

I hate hearing storys like this, it can happen so easily to anyone. You're lucky your bank is willing to work with you, my wife had her debit hacked and we started noticing all kinds of off the wall charges on our statements, we had to cancel the cards and the bank told us that it's our responsibility to get our funds back in line, including any overdrafts that we may get from them. My wife got it all straightened out and even got most of the money back from companys that the card was charged to, but with no help from the bank needless to say we switched banks.

We filed a report with our local Sheriffs office and later the Deputy informed us that the culprit was somewhere in New Zealand and more then likely intercepted our info over the net.