Mobile Phone Number fraud

Karizma
New Community Member
Today, I noticed something VERY alarming!!  2 unknown phone numbers have turned up on my profile.  They were listed under the mobile phone number category and I would't have noticed it except I checked the box to see all the phone numbers.  Now, how can that happen?  I changed my password right away in case it has been compromised, although I don't know how! 
 
I'm so freaking tired of fraud and scammers!  I contacted Paypal and requested them to investigate this immediately.  I'll be interest on seeing if they really do investigate it.  I kind of expect to get some lame form letter about how to keep my account safe.  But, I want to know what THEY are doing to make the system  more safe!  I want to know when the phone numbers were added, by what IP number and so on.  Has this happened to anyone else?  Why is it so easy to break into Paypal accounts?   
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Thanks,  Kari
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1 REPLY 1

PayPal_Andy
Moderator
Moderator

Karizma-  Well...that is certainly odd.  One less sinister possibility is the way our system works when you call in.  There are some cases where it will add the number you're calling from to your account.  This is supposed to be for ease of use in the future, but sometimes it creates other issues.  For a while, anytime someone would be transferred within PayPal, there was the possibility our system would add our number to an account.  I believe we've fixed that particular gremlin, but the opportunity for it still exists.  So I'm thinking the other two numbers may have been added from like a work phone or something you were calling in about.  Maybe.

 

As far as your last question, PayPal accounts aren't easy to break into.  PayPal, as a company, has never been breached.  With some variations on this theme, the biggest 'hackers' get access to PayPal accounts is due to password-sharing.  This is where you use the same password on your PayPal account as you use on an account with far less security (not going to name names, but I'm sure you can think of a few).  Those systems get compromised, those passwords wind up in the wind, and if it's the same email on both, with the same password, suddenly they have access to your PayPal account.

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