Identity Theft - It just happened to me :(

[project15]

$2254. Someone hacked into my email account and paypal account and bought $2254 worth of stuff and used my paypal account to pay for it. They then changed my email to forward and then delete all my incoming mail so that I wouldn't know until it was too late. I was suspicious on Tuesday after coming back from vacation and seeing that I had no new mail. I checked my spam and trash and finally found all my new mail - including a notification that I just sent a transfer of $2254 to Newegg. I was so pissed!! I've filed a claim with paypal and contacted newegg about the transaction and am waiting to hear back about my claim. I've transferred money from my EF so that I don't incur any fees with my bank account. I changed all my passwords. This just sucks. I feel so violated. I've been doing business on the internet for YEARS without problem.

What else should I do? I have a shipping address that belongs to an apartment complex in tampa, FL that I've looked up on google maps. My wife thinks I should contact the Tampa police dept. I just want the money back.

[boosami]

That sucks. I believe PayPal will handle it for you, though. They should reimburse your money and you can give them the address and any other information you might have on the criminal activity (like the address). They will investigate and do whatever they can to catch the guy if possible. You shouldn't have to file any police reports or try to do anything on your own.

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine, and PayPal reimbursed the money, and they ultimately caught the guy who did it.

[tmvijai]

First, I would strongly recommend you to file police report for future reference atleast.

Second, check on your credit files and set credit alarms. Hopefuly he didn't get your credit card number but you never know. It is better to be cautious than sorry later on.

Finally, check to see whether there is a spyware or something in your system and try to determine how they found your password.

JUst try to be patient and calm. Things will work out!!

[simpletron]

I would contact the tampa police. also use one of your free credit reports to check if they took out an credit cards or other loans in your name. and maybe you should freeze your credit reports.

just to tell you, the person who did this probably didn't hack into paypal, but broke into a weaker secure place that you used the same login and password. if I was a betting man, I would bet that your paypal, email and probably a couple of other places all have the same password. the password scheme that I use is a block of 6 alphanumeric like Q&b3!g(I have three of these blocks one for banking and investing, shopping, and everything else), then a 3 letter abberivation for the site like here would be SAF for Saving Advice Forum, and then a number for the revision of passwords. so my password for here would look like Q&b3!gSAF9, which is easy for me to remember but isn't used anywhere else, so if someone broken into here it wouldn't be simple to get into any of my other accounts.

[Broken Arrow]

You shouldn't have to file any police reports or try to do anything on your own.

How was he caught?

[creditcardfree]

So sorry. I don't have further advise. It would be nice if you updated us on this as it progresses, so that others may learn from your experience.

Good luck.

[boosami]

How was he caught?

PayPal apparently filed a police report, or maybe it was the insurance company. They were able to track the guy down probably by his shipping address. Hopefully that will work for OP!

[Broken Arrow]

PayPal apparently filed a police report, or maybe it was the insurance company. They were able to track the guy down probably by his shipping address. Hopefully that will work for OP!

Ah, I see. That gives me more confidence with Paypal in general. Yes, hopefully they will do the same for the OP.

[Goldy1]

What a headache. I have heard so many hororr stories about paypal on the e bay chat site when I used to go there years ago.

I use paypal. I get phishing e mails from "them".
Some folks open a bank account just for paypal in case crap happens, the main family money isn't involved.

[project15]

Yay - a happy ending! Newegg refunded me the money. I don't know if paypal reimbursed them and claimed it on their insurance or what. All I know is that my paypal received a transfer of the full amount from newegg.

Now to reformat my computer to make sure all spyware is off it...Win7 perhaps?

[maryannsms]

Identity theft has been the fastest growing crime in the United States for over five years in a row, and it seems to show no signs of letting up whatsoever. Consumers that are not careful and leave themselves exposed to the threats that can cause identity theft run a high risk of falling victim to a crime that can take several years to recover from. It is good that we should be aware of this now.

I'm glad that you had a happy ending project15 ... Not everyone of us is lucky like you.

[bjl584]

You should file a report immediately to your local police

Yea, It's too bad OP posted this story over 3 years ago....

[DinoSaur]

Hi,

I had issues with payments being taken from my Paypal account a while ago as well. Paypal had actually emailed me to verify some payments because there were suspicious.

I'd imagine the process will be the same.

Simply inform Paypal that the payment was authorised and do the same for your bank. You should then get the money back through a process called "Chargeback".

Best of luck with it all.

[PrudentSaver]

I feel for you. I lost about $300 from my checking account because of a large-scale compromise of Visa numbers. My credit union moved to MasterCard after that. I'd still prefer not having a debit card on my account.

Also, project15, have you already taken steps similar to those recommended at How to Dispute Errors On Your Credit Report? Check that out just in case you haven't.

[newguy]

Like the OP, I do everything on the Internet. Banking, paying my bills (credit card, electricity, gas, cable, internet, phone), shopping, etc.

This is what I recommend

1. Only use your credit card or paypal (Never use any ATM/Debit card when shopping or paying online unless you got no choice)
2. Never store credit card information (Some website will store your credit card information when you sign up for account, just opt out to store your cc).
3. Set up email alerts if possible (I set up my credit card and paypal to email me immediately for any transaction made online and I get it asap cause I have a blackberry)
4. Use strong password especially with your online bank account.
5. Be careful and have a protection program like antivirus etc.

Hope this helps!