jch364
Registered
So here is the story. A few weeks ago I got up in the morning like I always do and I come down to the computer and check mail and such. I see I got an email from paypal telling me that my account has been suspended until further notice basically and to follow the links and it would explain what and why and how to resolve the situation. To say the least i was a little confused and concerned. I went to the site and I found out that someone in England. Yes England, had hacked my paypal account got my pass word and then proceeded to purchase a cell phone from some one on ebay also from England to the tune of $445.00 A rather expensive cell phone wouldn't you say?
Ok so I freaked out and got on the phone with paypal. They said that once the transaction was made they were automatically alerted to it and were already in the process of retrieving my money by the time i had read the email. They said that it would take about 10 days or so for them to put the money back into my checking account and that I did not need to do anything. Well I realized that this jerkoff had my full account number to my checking account and could at any time use it so I went down to my bank and closed pulled out all of the rest of the money I had in there except for one check that was still out and then opened a new account and ordered a box of checks. Sure nuff in about ten days the money appeared back in that account. So I closed it out after that and all is well.
It is incredible to me that someone could have hacked my password like that with such ease. I mean it was 3letters 4 numbers and a letter. Thats like nearly impossible to crack!!!! Then I realized that I might be over thinking this. I realized that I used the same password for ebay that I have used on other sites and some of those sites use your email address to identify you. My guess is that whoever did this was able to access some other site that I belong to and was able to get passwords from those sites with the member names and then checked it against what may be in paypal and just got lucky with mine. Of course All of those passwords have been changed now so that cant happen again with me but for those of you who might be doing this, using the same password might want to take my lesson learned and apply it so you don't fall victim like i did.
It just goes to show you that sites you belong to might not be all that secure really.
Oh well, for me a lesson well learned and other than the time I had to take to get a new account I was only out a few bucks for some new checks.
Ok so I freaked out and got on the phone with paypal. They said that once the transaction was made they were automatically alerted to it and were already in the process of retrieving my money by the time i had read the email. They said that it would take about 10 days or so for them to put the money back into my checking account and that I did not need to do anything. Well I realized that this jerkoff had my full account number to my checking account and could at any time use it so I went down to my bank and closed pulled out all of the rest of the money I had in there except for one check that was still out and then opened a new account and ordered a box of checks. Sure nuff in about ten days the money appeared back in that account. So I closed it out after that and all is well.
It is incredible to me that someone could have hacked my password like that with such ease. I mean it was 3letters 4 numbers and a letter. Thats like nearly impossible to crack!!!! Then I realized that I might be over thinking this. I realized that I used the same password for ebay that I have used on other sites and some of those sites use your email address to identify you. My guess is that whoever did this was able to access some other site that I belong to and was able to get passwords from those sites with the member names and then checked it against what may be in paypal and just got lucky with mine. Of course All of those passwords have been changed now so that cant happen again with me but for those of you who might be doing this, using the same password might want to take my lesson learned and apply it so you don't fall victim like i did.
It just goes to show you that sites you belong to might not be all that secure really.
Oh well, for me a lesson well learned and other than the time I had to take to get a new account I was only out a few bucks for some new checks.
