Protect Your PayPal Account from Hackers

Firstly let me just say, if you have a computer that you use on the internet then you must must must use a firewall. If you don't then not only will your computer start to go wrong, you also risk private data getting into the hands of hackers or worse. People can gain full access to your computer, install what they like, watch what you are doing, take your passwords, bank details and even identity.

Learn how to keep out hackers your PayPal account. With the ever growing popularity of PayPal, there are always people that want your money.

Protect Your PayPal Account by NEVER Opening Paypal Emails

One popular way that hackers are accessing PayPal is through email. Most people already know NOT to click a link in an email for their PayPal mail. Fake emails are supposed to be sent to spoof@ PayPal.com.

Do NOT ever open emails from PayPal. Do not open mails to see that a transaction occurred. Do not open mails that show you paid or anything. Everything that you need for financial record keeping for PayPal can be accessed directly from the PayPal site. You can print transaction logs directly from the PayPal site. You can print individual receipts from purchases and subscription payments directly from the site.

There is a hacker program that once you open an email, the program automatically retrieves your email password. Without your knowledge, the hacker sends a request to PayPal for lost password. PayPal then sends the new password information to the email. The hacker has your email password and can then automatically retrieve your PayPal password without your knowledge.

Keep the PayPal customer service number available. If an email has been received that the PayPal account has been compromised, it is best to talk to the customer service representatives instead of communicating via emails and on the PayPal site. Some emails state that the account has been compromised so that you will open that email. Once the email is opened it might be too late. These spoof emails are designed to create a panic and get you to click links inside the email. But the info that the hacker needs is given to them as soon as you open the email. Clicking the link just makes their job easier.

Protect Your PayPal Account by Calling Customer Service

If you open an email, call the PayPal customer service immediately. Tell them that your account was compromised. Ask for assistance on temporarily freezing the account until you can secure it again. Get the PayPal staff to help you secure your account.

Protect Your PayPal Account by Changing Passwords Frequently

Go to your email internet provider and change your email password frequently. Hackers will have a harder time accessing the password to then request lost password info from PayPal.

After you have changed your email password, go directly to your PayPal account and change the password there. You want the email changed first so that when the hacker can no longer access the PayPal account, they will not be able to get into the email account for the lost password information.

Protect Your PayPal Account by Making Passwords Difficult

Passwords that contain a combination of letters, symbols and numbers are most difficult to retrieve through the guessing process. Use a minimum of eight characters, numbers and symbols for the passwords. The longer the password, the more difficult it is for a program to decrypt the password.

Make sure that the PayPal password and email password are different.

Protect Your PayPal Account by Having a Private Email Address

Hackers harvest email addresses that have PayPal accounts from internet sites. One common place that email addresses are harvested is auction sites. PayPal allows multiple email addresses to receive and make payments. Have a separate email address for auction sites or other sites where money transactions will occur.

Another popular place to harvest email addresses is through subscriptions. When you subscribe to any person or group, the email address is available for harvesting. Use a separate email address for all subscriptions.

When you receive PayPal emails to the public address, you will automatically know that the email is a spoof and not accidently click the email. For example, my eBay email account regularly receives two to four spoof emails daily stating that my PayPal account info is incorrect or my account is compromised. I simply hit the delete button. On my private email address, I have received zero of these spoof emails.

Click on this Associated Content producer's name to view her other published articles. Read about how to protect your PayPal account from charge-backs.

Resources:

http://www.paypal.com