I am sharing this with you guys because a lot of us on this site use Paypal to buy and sell parts. A couple of days ago my wife gets a call at her work from a collection agency in regards to a Paypal account in my name with a 1267.00 balance past due. My wife does not have a Paypal account and she is not listed on my account much less her work phone number. I have never received an invoice or any notification from Paypal about a past due invoice. Since Paypal keeps a Credit Card on file for payment how could there be an accrued balance? I check my paypal acct online and there is a 0 balance listed. Today I got a letter from the collection agency with the information from the acct. I call Paypal and after being on hold for 30 minutes and transferred 1/2 dozen times I found out there are like a dozen Paypal accounts in my name. Here is where it gets scary. All of the accounts have the correct ID information including last 4 of my social and birthday with the correct billing address and phone number etc. The only incorrect information is the email account attached to each paypal acct. They were all different and not email addresses I had ever heard of. This is the reason I was never notified of the problem as Paypal sends notices through email. Paypal is investigating this as a case of Fraud and instructed me to call back on Wednesday. I will keep you posted on what they find out.

 

This is scary and this stuff is becoming more and more common. It is probably just a matter of time until it happens to all of us.

 

Another reminder to have complilcated passwords and to change them often.

 

We gotta start executing these people when/if they're caught.

 

I have been concerned about this stuff for a long time. I shred anything that has my name or any other info on it. I understand that this is not how the little dirt bags are stealing identities but it makes me feel better for what it's worth. I'm beginning to wonder if joining one of the financial security services would be worth it. Does anyone belong to one of them? I'd be curious to hear what is thought of them.
Cheers, Mike

 

Thanks for letting us know...hopefully you are not on the hook for any of the money....
Different emails same account?......man, what are these types of people going to think of next!

 

A couple of Tips I use: Change passwords often. Passwords should have one capitol letter, numbers and a symbol. ( shift 5 = %). Like me I cannot remember all my passwords. So I have a thumb drive with the passwords on them. Just don't keep the thumb drive attached to you computer at all times.

 

Now I know why my Dad lived by the philosophy

"If I can not pay cash for it, I don't need it."

 

I'm a member of Lifelock, but thankfully I haven't had to use them.

 

I'm a member of Prepaid Legal,
and also have their indentiy theft plan.
It's $9.00 a month and they send you
monthly notices. Also if there is any activity
with your SS # they will shoot you an e-mail.

When I went for the loan on the 66, I had a mail
in my inbox by 3 the next day. Good program IMHO.

 

Thanks for the warning. I have'nt checked mine in months.

 

x2

Nigerians are now stealing girls for ransom.

There is 1 good solution to people like that- gene pool removal.

 

Had to shutdown my Ebay account because some lowlife managed to login to it & then tried to access their paypal account. At least that's what the folks at Ebay said. The account was automatically suspended & I just told them to kill it. Haven't used ebay for awhile anyway.

 

Stopped using Paypal when they wanted me to link my bank account.

 

Had the ID theft before. Used monitoring services but had to tell them 3 months after I bought a Harley that I did. (they are supposed to tell me of new activity) Found out you can put a freeze on your credit with the credit agencies for 5.00. Beats 150 per year. with the freeze you have to lift it to get a loan and it costs 5.00 each time but so far so good. You have to look hard to find it on the credit sites but it is worth it.

 

i agree with said above. anyone cought hacking and convicted of it should have to pay dearly, one count for every person wronged.sentences served consectuvely with no computer usage in prison. and no elagability for parole. i believe in "hack my computer then u can hack bubba, no soap rope for you." death is too final!

 

I keep my financial electronic foot print small and limited. A few credit cards, no debit cards and no ATM. With my Bank of America card I can setup single purpose card use that can only be used for specific amounts and for specific vendors. We do not keep a balance in paypal accounts.

 

I have paypal, but got a separate bank account at a different bank to manage that.

I have lifelock and the one time I applied for a new credit card my cell phone rang while I was at the bank completing the application process. That convinced me it works.

Years ago when I was in college I had my I.D. stolen. The school used my social security number as my student ID number, yeah back in the dark ages. I'm figuring someone working at the library copied it. I applied for a part time job, interview went great, then they called me back and said the background check people told them to get as far away from me as quick as possible! Took some work but I got someone at the FBI who said this person had been arrested many times and had used at least seven different I.D.'s when processed at the police stations. At least one of those times he used mine, and it was some kind of felony but they wouldn't tell me what. I hate paying the fees for this stuff, but in my opinion its worth it to keep from having the nightmare of getting my life back if/when it happens.

John

 

I just recently set up my Paypal account, and when they wanted me to link my bank account, I thought it was pretty cool. Cool in the sense that you can link things so easily anymore. Having no prior experience with it, I immediately chose to link it. I don't have any sort of credit/debit cards, so I never keep a balance in my account. I had to provide proof of my identity and SSN and bank info, of course. No problems so far!

 

POWDERED SOAP ONLY with a set of dull bent tweezers to extract said soap off the prison shower floor for these bass turds.
I have an item on Craigslist right now. I get an email saying "he" wants to purchase the item. He (Chris Smith...rrright) then asks for the email address attached to my paypal account! I then told him that's not how it works scooter. If he wants the item I submit a request for money to paypal using HIS email address. Paypal then receives the money and holds it until both parties are satisfied. Only problem is that the buyer now has the item. They can alter it or say it wasn't what what was described etc...and send it back for a refund. I'm selling a ring with stones. So the buyer could pull the stones put in fakes then send it back and get a refund! I will only deal with local persons with this one where I can meet them to exchange. He did give me his email but Im not doing the exchange. Too risky. I wish these bottom feeders would do an honest days work rather then being bottom feeding boat anchors to society!

 

Same here, so I never set up the account. Later I get an e-mail that says there is a problem with my Pay Pal account. I turned it into the internet fraud site. Never heard anything else.

 

Horse thievery was (still is in some states) a hanging offense Electronic fraud deserves the same punishment! No news from Paypal today.

 

Report internet crimes to this site.


http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

 

Thanks for the information. Keep us updated as to what the result is.

 

Paypal locked my first account years ago
they never really said WHY they snatched $250 out of my bank acct.
I suspect it was one idiot named Mark Lim in the CT area. Not sure what his problem was, he was not good at communicating either. The amount is about right.

Anyhow, one day I am short of money- why? Paypal took $250 for some reason. I filled out forms to get that back via the bank, and then Paypal froze that acct. Several phone calls failed to produce any meaningful conversation- waste of time. So, I started a different paypal acct and watch them like a hawk.

I suspect Mr. Lim was trying to cheat and get free parts. Maybe he did get his $ back via paypal. I know I sent the parts he wanted.

 

I've heard of people buying things, replacing parts then getting refund from paypal Leaving the seller cheated. There should be more investigation before a refund is given IMO.

 

I went through something similar about 10 years back with Paypal. I have setup other accounts and each time, when they figure out I'm the same person that had this previous account, they shut it down. Keep watching 'em like a hawk.

 

Well here is the Pay Pal report. They have filed this as an Identity Fraud incident and forgiven the $1200.00 in charges on the account. They have notified the collection agency that this is no longer a collection issue. Seems that in July of 2012 someone opened a paypal account with all my correct information except the email address and credit card info. They purchased various items with a stolen credit card (not my card) until Dec 2013. In Jan 2014 the credit card company notified Pay Pal that these were unauthorized charges and pay pal credited the credit card company back the billed amounts. This created a balance on the bogus account in my name. Pay pal could not reach me through the bogus email and sent the information to a collection agency. So now I have to go through all the identity fraud steps and notify all credit reporting agencies, IRS, SS etc. what a PITA!

 

Every 3 months I get a free credit report from 1 credit reporting agency at a time and read it for any bogus charges. Equifax, Transunion, and Experian all allow 1 free credit report per year. Generally if anything shows up on 1, it will be on another.

 

I don't think this would have helped in this case. They didn't access his PayPal or bank account. They actually opened brand new PayPal accounts with his Identification. They can probably link them to fake credit cards and have all kinds of fun.