Is my Paypal account compromised? Expert opinions needed.

[positivecarry]

Ok, being a bit new to the Internet, I used a free yahoo email account to set up my paypal account. I was just about to switch to my hosting e-mail, when I noticed in my yahoo inbox that Paypal was asking for a survey to be filled out about their phone service that I used. Well.... I never used a phone service related to my Paypal account. So, I am wondering if this is an absolute indication that my account has been compromised.

I still have access to the account, but someone could just be monitoring the account to wait for larger sums of $ to start flowing through it. Let's say that someone has my account info. What is the best course of action here, to change my email address on the paypal account and then change my password after the new email address kicks in? Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Larwee]

Sounds like phishing.

This sounds as if it could be an attempt by someone other than PayPal to get you to give them information about your account so they can compromise it.

This is a very common problem. There are attempts to get people to give PayPal information, banking information etc.

Here is a link to a thread that can help you know what to look for and what to avoid in situations such as this http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5...m/webmasters-universe/6675-phishing-quiz.html

 

[positivecarry]

Hmmm, I am looking at the survey request and it does appear as though it may be phising, because it states "
NOTE: Please respond within five days so that you can provide timely feedback to me. After 5 days, this invitation will expire. "

To me , I don't think that looks quite right. At any rate, I didn't fill out information for the survey. I was more thinking along the lines that someone used the phone service and this survey was tipping me off to that fact. Who knows. I changed my email to my hosting provider, I'll do some more investigating. I am sure hackers just run through yahoo accounts all day long looking for the words paypal.

 

[Edwin]

Emails like these are being send out randomly, i don't even open them, if i think it's a valid email judging from the email subject line i'll visit the official PayPal website.

It's your email that is more probably to have been harvested from somewhere. Don't worry about it, it's nothing, ignore the email and future emails you get from PayPal if you don't expect it.

If you feel it's something you need to know more about then visit the PayPal website and check what's up or give them a call or Google for the supposed news item to find any ongoing discussions/reports on it.

 

[positivecarry]

free yahoo accounts are vulnerable and should never be used for sensitive information, correct?

 

[Edwin]

I'm not sure if they are more vulnerable, but having control over your own hosting and direct access with help of your hosting provider to work out any kinks in your email set up is a better way then being at the mercy of Yahoo or other free email service provider.

If for some reason you find using Yahoo's email service much more convenient, you can forward emails from your main email account to Yahoo's service.

And using a strong password is vital.

 

[positivecarry]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Linnie]

You can ask Pay Pal

Hi!

I used to get phishing emails all the time. Got me pretty rattled when I almost fell for one of them so I went to Pay Pal's website to see if they had anything about it there.

They sure did! And still do. At the bottom of any of their pages you will see a link to their 'Security Center' where you can get a lot of information. After all, they don't appreciate it much when people are mis-using their company name.

The following is from Pay Pal's website -
========
If you think you?ve received a phishing email:

1. Forward the email to spoof@paypal.com
2. Delete the email
========

I even forwarded to the above address once and asked if the email message was from them or was it bogus and they answered me back. Perhaps you could try that in the future so you'll feel more secure about whether you should open your mail or not.

Pay Pal would like nothing better than to get these guys!

Hope this helps!

 

[positivecarry]

I will look into that,thanks.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yep I'm sure it's phishing. There are a TON of those out there.
I don't even read them. If you look closely there are all kinds of tell-tale signs usually.

 

[positivecarry]

It was quite well done, except for that little excerpt that said "send the information to me" Haha, what a joker.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well one of the tell take signs is the URL it will take you to. I'm always afraid to click because in addition to phishing they could be loading malware. But if you do clickthrough and look carefully the domain won't be paypal.com. It may be xyseifl.com/paypal or even that sounds plausible like accountchanges.com/paypal

But again, I wouldn't clickthrough. Just go to paypal
and see if you have any messages.

 

[Genny]

Ok, being a bit new to the Internet, I used a free yahoo email account to set up my paypal account. I was just about to switch to my hosting e-mail, when I noticed in my yahoo inbox that Paypal was asking for a survey to be filled out about their phone service that I used. Well.... I never used a phone service related to my Paypal account. So, I am wondering if this is an absolute indication that my account has been compromised.

I still have access to the account, but someone could just be monitoring the account to wait for larger sums of $ to start flowing through it. Let's say that someone has my account info. What is the best course of action here, to change my email address on the paypal account and then change my password after the new email address kicks in? Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

Hi

I've had suspect emails supposedly from PayPal. I contacted PayPal (separately via my usual route) and they said that if ever they send me an email, it will always have my name on it at the beginning. Sure enough, every time I get bogus emails supposedly from PayPal, my name is never there. It's just a quick way of identifying whether or not it's really from PayPal. Make it your policy to NEVER click on any email that comes from any financial institution. If ever you're in serious doubt, just contact them by some other means (telephone, usual login method etc) and ask.

By the way, it wouldn't hurt to simply change your PayPal email and password.

Regards
Genny