PayPal Fraud

[Engine09]

Anyone with a similar experience?

Someone hacked into my account last week and grabbed $1300 from my bank account. Nothing to do with a phishing email or that sort of scam, just gained access somehow. My password might have been a bit simple and easy for some nerd with the right kind of software to hack in there.

PayPal said the money will be refunded to my paypal account any day now, just waiting. CIBC told me that the resulting 3 NSF charges are not their responsibility to refund since it was paypals fault, but they refunded 2 "as a goodwill gesture".

Paypal's customer service people are very clueless, I'm wondering if I should even go after them for the last $40 NSF charge.

Also, just a reminder to have a decent password for the important stuff online. Special characters, upper and lower case, all that stuff.


By the way, the theif that gained acces to my account bought $700 worth of World of Warcraft online characters. Do people actually pay good money for such buffoonery? Imaginary characters for real cash, jesus.

[Flashpoint]

Wow.

Time to cancel my Paypal account!

[Misterpants]

Time to get online and hunt them down with your level 42 Night Elf. Did you see that episode of South Park where the kids band together to beat the WoW guy? Just like that...

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Misterpants

Time to get online and hunt them down with your level 42 Night Elf. Did you see that episode of South Park where the kids band together to beat the WoW guy? Just like that...

I'm pretty sure my brother is that WoW guy.. Seriously, its sad.. I sometimes wonder if I could get him on an episode of intervention.

On topic, I just changed my Paypal password, thanks for the heads up..

[Misterpants]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

I'm pretty sure my brother is that WoW guy.. Seriously, its sad.. I sometimes wonder if I could get him on an episode of intervention.

On topic, I just changed my Paypal password, thanks for the heads up..

That would be a great episode. I love that show.

[photon]

One reason I will never let paypal know about my bank account.

[The Yen Man]

For stuff like the Internet, I never use bank accounts. Credit cards are the way to go, since if something fraudulent happens, more often than not the credit card company reverses the charge, and whatever the business the merchandise was bought at usually takes the hit.

[disco_inferno]

Originally Posted by Kryzsky

Anyone with a similar experience?
By the way, the theif that gained acces to my account bought $700 worth of World of Warcraft online characters. Do people actually pay good money for such buffoonery? Imaginary characters for real cash, jesus.

it was probably leeroy jenkins, he owes some people for this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zll_jAKvarw

[DuffMan]

I never keep money in my bank account so I should be ok.

So, a wow geek is hacking accounts to pay for his imaginary life? what is the world coming to. It used to just be the Russian mafia I was worried about.

[Engine09]

Yep, you're advised to only have 1 credit card linked to a paypal account, preferably with a low limit like $1000. I actually added my bank account for a one time purchase, a Marshall amp. I just forgot to remove the info after I was done with that purchase.

They tried to steal from my credit card also, but that payment was refused immedately and refunded to my card mins after I called. Credit cards are the way to go.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Kryzsky

By the way, the theif that gained acces to my account bought $700 worth of World of Warcraft online characters. Do people actually pay good money for such buffoonery? Imaginary characters for real cash, jesus.

I don't recall if it was WoW but I read a story once where a guy bought a sword of some kind off another guy (using real world money) and when the guy with the sword didn't deliver ingame, the buyer hunted down the guy and killed him in real life.

I liked WoW, don't get me wrong. It held my attention for about a year but got old real quick after that. Fun game but I don't get how some would become addicted to it.

[nickerjones]

im a diablo 2 type of a guy lol .... i could buy alot of runes for 1300 bones

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Kryzsky

Anyone with a similar experience?

Someone hacked into my account last week and grabbed $1300 from my bank account. Nothing to do with a phishing email or that sort of scam, just gained access somehow. My password might have been a bit simple and easy for some nerd with the right kind of software to hack in there.

PayPal said the money will be refunded to my paypal account any day now, just waiting. CIBC told me that the resulting 3 NSF charges are not their responsibility to refund since it was paypals fault, but they refunded 2 "as a goodwill gesture".

Had something similar happen to me a couple months back. I went to the bank told them they were all unauthorized charges, I signed some form they removed the charges and all 5 resulting NSFs. This was at TD.

My password was not simple at all, word with some importance to me, with the letters randomized, a couple random capitals and a number thrown in somewhere in the middle for good measure. Seeing as it hadn't used the paypal in almost a year and the password was unqiue to paypal it really makes one wonder how it was acquired. In general is use the same password for all stupid interet things games/this forum. But all the banking things have their own harder to guess password.

I'd tell CIBC either to remove all 3 of the NSFs or you'll close your account and take your business elsewhere. Is a 40$ junk charge worth them loosing you as a customer?

[Raekwon]

Watch out for website links that direct you to keyloggers. Its big on the forums of World of Warcraft usually to get access to your accounts but I'm sure its just as easy for people to get your paypal passwords the same way. Its pretty tricky how its done the links look real and you may not even know after you clicked it. Sorry to hear about the account but try this link to recover your money. http://clickhere.tostealyourpassword...cvjsfdjsd.html

[PowerPlayoffs06]

Originally Posted by Kryzsky

By the way, the theif that gained acces to my account bought $700 worth of World of Warcraft online characters. Do people actually pay good money for such buffoonery? Imaginary characters for real cash, jesus.

I sold my WoW characters for $600 and bought myself a decent digital camera.

Back when Ultima Online was in its heyday there was a virtual real-estate market where people would pay for player housing because there was only a limited amount of space to place property. It would range from $50 for a small shack out in the middle of nowhere to upwards of $2000 for a castle near popular cities.

It's unreal what people will pay for pixels on a screen.

Actually, there's supposed to be a new FPS game being released by EA Games where you have to pay real money for upgraded weapons in the game. There's also a racing game coming out where you buy better cars or car parts to race with for real money.

Anyways, sorry to go off-topic.

[flip]

Originally Posted by Dan02

I'd tell CIBC either to remove all 3 of the NSFs or you'll close your account and take your business elsewhere. Is a 40$ junk charge worth them loosing you as a customer?

Unfortunately it is unlikely that CIBC will listen to the whole "Im closing my account" thing. I might do it on principle but they won't care. Not for a University student with only $1300. Maybe if it was $130,000.

I'd just talk to the manager or someone important and explain the situation. My dad is a banker and when I get service charges it is literally a 2 second click and the charges are gone.

[Flames_Gimp]

removed my bank account

[TheDragon]

It's not uncommon for Gold Farmers to buy accounts either with the intention of a) Stripping them of their Gold, b) "Sharding their gear," in hopes to selling the shards for Gold on the World of WarCraft market, c) Turning around and re-selling the account for a bigger profit (and obviously not having to worry about paying for them with their own money.)

Unfortunately, Gold Farming is big business in places like China and Korea, where kids will literally kill themselves to keep playing. Selling virtual gold for real money has turned in to quite the industry, even for some North Americans and Europeans.

It's a mighty big, nasty, corrupt world, that World of WarCraft.

Anyway, you might have yourself a keylogger or something, Kryzsky. In which case, that might not be the only password they have their hands on.

I highly suggest running Ad-Aware/Spyboy S&D in Safemode, and then maybe changing your passwords.

[Bob]

Out of curiosity, is it possible to set up a stand-alone Paypal account with no ties to a bank account or credit card and just pay money into it on occasion?

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Bob

Out of curiosity, is it possible to set up a stand-alone Paypal account with no ties to a bank account or credit card and just pay money into it on occasion?

you don't need a paypal account at all, you can just use Paypal to pay for things through your credit card like you do at alot of checkout sites. This was not the case many years ago when i added my bank account,

and i believe to recieve money you will need to have a bank account on file.