Account has been hacked (again). May I change my settings to send to only me at my address?

[amypond]

Since March my account has been hacked twice. Once someone created USPS labels totaling over $270 to ship computer equipment to Romania.  This time someone bought a computer from a company in Cincinnati and sent it to an address in Conyers Georgia ((I have NO idea where that is - only that the house has been in foreclosure for quite some time (according to what I found on my search)).  Long story longer, I am so upset about this violation of my hard earned income

(I'm an elementary school teacher.) that I cannot stop thinking about how to stop this awful stealing.

The seller of the computer loses, too! I really hope they find the guy who did this. I gave Ebay and Paypal every bit of information I could. My family said I should call the police.

My question is: How can I change my account to send purchases to only my address that is connected to my charge card?

I pay everything in full every month on time.  The extra 900 dollars that was stolen will cause a hardship.

I do not sell on Ebay. My Paypal account is not connected to Ebay. All I do is make purchases online through retailers who give Paypal as an option because it is "secure."

Phew! I wish I could have written that all in an email to Paypal that a real person would respond to.

[snowshoe · Accepted solution]

You may want to simply start over if you choose to continue to use PayPal.

First suggest that you have a professional check out your computer, per the details you posted, it's quite possible your computer has an issue, i.e., spyware, virus, etc.   You should also close your PayPal Account.  Once you're sure that your computer is clean, then may want to proceed with opening a new PayPal Account.  Note, it's also in your best interest to setup a new email address. 

Other thoughts, if you have a home network, ensure that it is secure - for example you can configure your router to only allow connections based on MAC Addresses, etc. 

As this is a member to member help group, we are not PayPal Customer Support.  All we can do is speculate that it's no coincidence that your account has been hacked twice.  Issues like this happen for a reason, be it a weak password or an infected computer.  In some cases, even a trusted family member has been found to be the root cause of issues such as this.

[amypond]

Thank you. Those are excellent suggestions. Once this is over I will discontinue my paypal and ebay accounts for a while.  I've had charge cards for over 30 years and my same email address for 20 years. Nothing has been stolen until recently.  I even had a tech person come in after my first paypal unauthorized use to install a new computer with new passwords and new antivirus software. I was hoping that if I could find a way to create a setting that prohibited anything sent to any address but the one connected to my charge card, I could keep using paypal. It's so easy, but I'm so upset I can barely sleep. Changing my email address is probably something else I will so, but it's attached to many things! Ebay told me that the person who used my account for the purchase used an address almost idential to mine. Thanks, again.

[amypond · Accepted solution]

Update to my paypal case: Paypal has closed the "dispute" in favor of the seller.  I immediately called my charge card company who connected me to their fraud division.  They took down all the information including the police report I had filed. I had given everything already to Paypal who did nothing. I am now getting a new card, and the charge is off my account.  Thank you to my charge card company. No thanks to Paypal.

I really hope the person who used my paypal account to buy the Apple Macbook to send  to Conyers, GA in MY name is caught. Ebay told me the person's account was suspended.  Wow. That's harsh.  I won't get the part of the money that was in my account back, but I will use this experience as a learning one.  I'm going back to my old way of purchasing online before all this happened.  No more "secure" Paypal. Thanks, though, to Snowshoe for the advice.

[sandypurins · Accepted solution]

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amypond wrote:

Update to my paypal case: Paypal has closed the "dispute" in favor of the seller. 

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Did PayPal tell you why they closed the dispute in favor of the seller?

~Sandy

[amypond · Accepted solution]

Yes, eventually. When I noticed that the case was "closed" I called customer service who told me that the case was closed by Paypal in favor of the seller.  She offered to transfer me to another department for an explanantion, but told me the wait was very long.  She called me back a little while ago, and now I think I understand what is happening.  Because part of the money was taken from my credit card, I needed to open a case with them.  If I understand correctly, once my card company is investigating, Paypal is not?  It's so confusing because all the written material from all sources says that they are all working together.

Paypal covered the seller (I contacted him).  He knew it was fraud, and he said to me that he believes my card company will not make me pay.  As for the money that was taken from the Paypal account, the agent said I would need to contact Paypal about it after the card company closed the case.  I'm glad that at least the seller was covered, but bummed that the guys got away with stealing a computer with my money.

Thank you.

[amypond]

Further update...The case is essentially closed. PayPal covered the seller’s losses.  My credit card company covered my potential losses.  PayPal takes the hit.  

I am convinced that my laptop was hacked, and my passwords and identity were stolen.  It was an old laptop that I had set aside for occasional schoolwork (my favorites were still on it) after getting my new computer. I should have taken it to factory settings immediately, but was too naïve. Heed the warnings about malware!! Since then I have made every password so complicated that I can barely remember them. I’ve researched and implemented the best possible malware defenses. I have spoken with many helpful (and not so helpful) agents who have really tried to explain the PayPal processes…but my ONE question remains…

How did I not receive an email alerting me to the unauthorized transaction?

I get EVERY other email for every other transaction – just not this one.

If I had, I could have had the police intercept the stolen goods – we had everything – the buyer, the address, and the tracking info – just no email that could have alerted me to the activity weeks before I saw it on my bill.  I received two emails the day before and the day after alerting me to legitimate transactions. Why not the other? What else could the hackers do once they had my password?  How did they change the normal PayPal email alert system?

No one at PayPal could explain it. The only explanations they could offer were:

1. It went into junk email (nope, checked that).
2. They changed your email address (I would have been notified that my primary address changed.)
3. Wow. Weird. We’ll look into that.

I must thank the people from the department who actually called me! I almost had a heart attack when I saw the caller ID from PayPal.  Then again, I sent them over a dozen emails! 

My feedback for PayPal is to please look further into this. Is there something about the settings that we can change to prevent this? No one I spoke with on the phone at PayPal had an answer.

[sandypurins]

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amypond wrote:
but my ONE question remains…

How did I not receive an email alerting me to the unauthorized transaction?

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When my PayPal and eBay accounts were hijacked, my email account was also hijacked.  The hijacker changed my email settings to block PayPal and eBay email messages, and therefore... I never received any of the normal PayPal and eBay messages which accompany a purchase or a change in account information.

~Sandy

[amypond]

Wow! And did they change them right back? I got a message from PayPal just a few hours later about a transaction I actually made.

I don't have an Ebay account.  It's my husband's. They created an Ebay account in my name just for the amount of time it took to buy the computer.  They had no history - all they had to do was "buy it now."

[sandypurins]

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amypond wrote:

Wow! And did they change them right back? I got a message from PayPal just a few hours later about a transaction I actually made.

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My hijacker didn't change them back.  I found out about the unauthorized activity within a few hours, so I don't know whether the hijacker had planned to change them back after he was done making all his purchases.

~Sandy