ADMINS PLEASE READ: Preventing A Hacked or stolen account - some suggestions

Denryuu2
Contributor
Contributor

This is a brand new fresh account. I just had my account on Paypal stolen 2 days ago. I went to purchase a program and when the payment didn't go through and nothing happened i should have been more aware. However i passed it off as a glitch and continued my life.

I looked into my back account today and noticed a bunch of payments i had not authorized or knew about and realized my account was exposed.

 

Trying to login to Paypal was fruitless, my email I had associated with the account was removed and I could not access OR request a "forgotten email".

 

This went on for so long because i didn't have "2-step verification" setup to prevent unauthorized login or a second email associated to the account to recover my account, which i think would have been fruitless anyway.

 

I never received an email or a phone sms to verify my emails being removed from the account. This allowed to stolen account to still be used with my card or bank details without my knowing and an even harder time trying to get back my account after the fact. Here are some suggestions i would like to make to prevent future incidents like this happening:

  1. Before removing an Email associated with the account, send an email or sms to the account holder to verify this change
  2. Once an email has been removed, Send an Email to let them know or such changes
  3. disable/remove card or bank info when such changes occur to prevent misuse of account - reenter bank/card details after email is confirmed
  4. Allow an emergency contact for the relevant country when locked out of an account

Hopefully these suggestions can be implemented and put to good use to prevent such events happening to other people. This has honestly been a hassle to work out today. 

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2 REPLIES 2

PayPal_JonK
Moderator
Moderator

Hello @Denryuu2,

 

I'm sorry to hear you've run into some unrecognized activity on your account. Normally, when you need to report any unauthorized activity through your PayPal account, you can do so through our Resolution Center. Here's a great Help Center article that can guide you through that process: How do I report an unauthorized transaction or account activity?

 

Since it sounds like you're unable to access your account, I'd recommend reaching out to our Customer Support teams for assistance. You can reach Customer Support by clicking Contact and then Message Us at the bottom of the PayPal page. They're also available through Twitter direct message or Facebook instant message.

 

Best wishes,

 

- Jon K


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Denryuu2
Contributor
Contributor

The biggest problem i had was trying to get into contact. "message us" "call us" even "resolution center" required me to "log in" which i couldnt at the time since i didnt have an account to log into. if "call us" had just taken me to a phone number list for the country im in or something similar in the first place i might have been able to resolve it quicker. even still, i managed to find a phone number through some external sources 1800 073 263 for the Australian paypal service but every time i went through the prompts to get to any situation the automated system just hung me up and told me to sign in on the web. Its a pointless system and needs to be changed or at least looked at for an easier method in such situations.

 

the same thing would happen going through the "resolution center". 

 

Making a new account just to get into contact when i already had a legit account would have defeated the purpose, and i believe having multiple accounts is against the TOS. let alone if i had added banks details to it my bank would have frozen the accounts due to "attempted fraud" as it has happened to both my mother and brother when making an acc when they unknowingly had one already.

 

the point is, send these opinions forward. having my email deleted from my account so they could spend money without me knowing about it is not a great thing for your service. not being able to get into contact without an account i can access is also really difficult to resolve anything.

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