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Fraudulent Online Account Activity Regarding PayPal Account Access
FRAUDULENT
ONLINE ACCOUNT ACTIVITY REGARDING PAYPAL
ACCOUNT ACCESS
On Sunday, July 29, 2007 at 3:59 p.m. I received a bogus e-mail from someone pretending to be the PayPal Account Department. At the time, I did not know that it was bogus so I clicked on to the link that they gave me which is:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr? cmd=login-run
They asked me for the following: 1) Name of my financial institution 2) My checking account number 3) My debit card account number 4) Expiration date of my debit card 5) My pin number 6) The 3/4 number on the back of my debit card. I thought it was bogus, but I knew in order to be paid for writing abstracts, I would have to have the money deposited into my checking account. I went ahead and entered all of the information that they asked for.
On Wednesday, August 1, 2007 when I checked my account at a local ATM machine, I noticed that a withdrawal of $101.75 had been made. I knew that I did not make it. Also, an additional $1.00 had been charged to my account for ATM usage. I knew that I had written a check for $100.00 to pay a bill, but I should not have been charged to have the check clear my bank. I knew this was strange. Since I checked my account at the credit union where I bank, there should not have been a charge applied. When I got home, I contacted my credit union and they informed me that someone had made a $101.75 withdrawal from my checking account in San Pedro, California which is on the west coast and I live on the east coast. I immediately drove to the nearest branch of my credit union and had my debit card blocked and my checking account closed. My credit union is going to issue me a new ATM card and pin number.
On August 2, 2007, there was another withdrawal made on my account. This time it was for $41.75 and the money was withdrawn from an ATM in another city in California. Since there is a three hour difference in time, this transaction was done before the block was put on my ATM card.
If you have been the victim of fraudulent online banking account activity, my advice to you is to notify your financial institution and your credit bureau immediately and have your ATM debit card blocked and your banking account closed. Reopen a new banking account immediately and have a new ATM card issued by your financial institution with a new pin number. There are so many scam artists out there. They sit and wait for you to enter your personal banking information online and then they grab it. This is called fishing.
I know PayPal is a secured website and they would never ask me for my pin number and the last 3/4 numbers on the back of my ATM card. I sincerely hope that no one else goes through this, but if you do, please refer back to this abstract.
I met with the officials at my credit union again on August 2, 2007 and to their knowledge all activity should stop after the block that has been put on my account.
Published: August 03, 2007
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