How secure is Paypal?

[Insomniac]

Well they aren't going to be the ones to blame in case of an incident.

Paypal is a well trusted company. Have no worries.

Oh, I have no doubts about PayPal as a company.

I'm just saying, anything that you type into the computer "can" be put into unwanting hands.

I use 1 credit card for all online transactions, as far as PayPal and paying to other individuals is concerned - alot easier to keep track of, unlike other credit cards, which I wouldn't be as worried about.

Call it paranoid me, but it works for me

 

[pcfan123]

I for one am not at all worried about using my card online, I only shop at well known locations and only use my one card, AMEX which has fraud liability up to $5000, so even if I do get screwed, they reimburse me.

A few years ago somehow someone got one of my credit card numbers and bought $2000 worth of paintball equipment on it, the company called me to confirm, I said it wasent me, they send me a new card and end of story. Wonder if they ever caught that guy, either way, I was never out a dime

 

[Insomniac]

I for one am not at all worried about using my card online, I only shop at well known locations and only use my one card, AMEX which has fraud liability up to $5000, so even if I do get screwed, they reimburse me.

A few years ago somehow someone got one of my credit card numbers and bought $2000 worth of paintball equipment on it, the company called me to confirm, I said it wasent me, they send me a new card and end of story. Wonder if they ever caught that guy, either way, I was never out a dime

My question to you now is what if you did buy that equipment, and you lied to the company.

Free $2000?

 

[Dutch]

I have never had any problems with online paying. i use both visa and paypal without any problems. But as hmarka says it is sound advice to be with a bank that covers any illegitimate use. You need to be careful of what and where you are buying though. I wouldn't buy diamonds of a Nigerian website!!!

 

[pcfan123]

No really free money for anyone, the credit card company called me before they confirmed payment to the vendor, so my card was never charged and the vendor never shipped merchandise to that crook

 

[Insomniac]

No really free money for anyone, the credit card company called me before they confirmed payment to the vendor, so my card was never charged and the vendor never shipped merchandise to that crook

Aaaah.

Ok, I see now. I thought this was a matter of he went into the store, bought the equipment, and left (and the CC was processed), and they called you after the money was spent.

 

[Dutch]

No really free money for anyone, the credit card company called me before they confirmed payment to the vendor, so my card was never charged and the vendor never shipped merchandise to that crook

There is a little free money to be made with credit cards: I have a 8500 dollar credit limit. Each month is free of interest. I only pay interest once the month has expired on any debt I have from the previous month. Here is what I do: I put all the 8500 into my normal savings account for a month. At the end of the month I put it back onto my credit card. Next day I put it back again once the new month starts. Result: interest on the money in my savings account which adds up to a couple of hundred dollars a year!

 

[Insomniac]

There is a little free money to be made with credit cards: I have a 8500 dollar credit limit. Each month is free of interest. I only pay interest once the month has expired on any debt I have from the previous month. Here is what I do: I put all the 8500 into my normal savings account for a month. At the end of the month I put it back onto my credit card. Next day I put it back again once the new month starts. Result: interest on the money in my savings account which adds up to a couple of hundred dollars a year!

So theoretically, if you do this with say 10 credit cards...

 

[Dutch]

So theoretically, if you do this with say 10 credit cards...

It should be possible. Trouble is not all banks and credit card companies give the interest free month and will only issue one card to an account. But I suppose if you shopped around you could make quite a tidy sum. I am sure there is a catch somewhere otherwise everyone would be doing it but for my credit card it works a treat.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I for one am not at all worried about using my card online, I only shop at well known locations and only use my one card, AMEX which has fraud liability up to $5000, so even if I do get screwed, they reimburse me.

A few years ago somehow someone got one of my credit card numbers and bought $2000 worth of paintball equipment on it, the company called me to confirm, I said it wasent me, they send me a new card and end of story. Wonder if they ever caught that guy, either way, I was never out a dime

When people get hold of credit card numbers, how do they usually do it - via spyware installed on people's PCs, or via snooping on their network (imagine some creep sitting outside your house in a van or something. I saw a programme about that sort of thing a while back - the crew sat outside some guy's house with the right sort of equipment in a van and were able to see everything he was doing online - creepy.)

I have never had any problems with online paying. i use both visa and paypal without any problems. But as hmarka says it is sound advice to be with a bank that covers any illegitimate use. You need to be careful of what and where you are buying though. I wouldn't buy diamonds of a Nigerian website!!!

Damn straight! I'll only ever buy from well known UK sites.

 

[sohum]

When people get hold of credit card numbers, how do they usually do it - via spyware installed on people's PCs, or via snooping on their network (imagine some creep sitting outside your house in a van or something. I saw a programme about that sort of thing a while back - the crew sat outside some guy's house with the right sort of equipment in a van and were able to see everything he was doing online - creepy.)

There are many, many different ways. A few that spring to mind off the top of my head:

1) Irresponsible employees. There have been cases where employees of supermarkets and restaurants have installed a data collector on the scanning machine, or have a personal scanning machine that stores data. The restaurant one is more common since you lose sight of the card.

2) Packet sniffing. If you are on an unsecure wireless connection, anyone can sit between you and the website you are buying from--regardless of the security protocols present on the website--with the right software.

3) Install spyware or keylogger software. This will basically record keystrokes in a file and email it to the attacker.

4) Phishing. The attacker will use social engineering to trick the victim into believing they are authenticating onto an official site. This is probably the most common form of stealing.

 

[AbBh]

A lot of times its a spyware that logs your keystrokes, steals passwords etc. There are also trojans that serve you fake or modified web pages to steal your password. You might be visiting paypal.com but the trojan could intercept the connection and display its own version of paypal.com and make your browser believe it originated from paypal's servers.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I've been doing a lot of research on it all recently, hence my questions. That's also the reason I've decided to go for a full Internet security suite, as long as it doesn't cost more than around ?20 - ?30 a year.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

I think a common way might be the hosts file, you know redirecting to some other place all the while maintaining the same website name, like AbBh said.

Social engineering has rather now become commercial engineering tbh. What with all the "lottery" emails and people signing up for them.

 

[Cricketman]

I for one am not at all worried about using my card online, I only shop at well known locations and only use my one card, AMEX which has fraud liability up to $5000, so even if I do get screwed, they reimburse me.

A few years ago somehow someone got one of my credit card numbers and bought $2000 worth of paintball equipment on it, the company called me to confirm, I said it wasent me, they send me a new card and end of story. Wonder if they ever caught that guy, either way, I was never out a dime

Yeah. Some prick bought Gas in Arizona or something and drove across the border to buy random crap in Mexico. It was over 8,200$. I don't know how he did it as we had the physical card with us. Anyways, the company detected the suspicious payments, called us right away, reimbursed me, canceled the CC, and a few hours later called again to say that they found the guy. Pretty sweet.