A few weeks ago, news broke of a Russian hacker accessing millions of email addresses. No big deal, a lot of people thought.
But one man believes that heist may have enabled a foreign thief to steal almost $1,000 from him.
Transfer from PayPal Account
Chris Green received an email alert the other day that almost made his heart skip a beat.
"I got up at 4 a.m. and there was an email from PayPal that stated I transferred $920, and it went to some type of Russian account," said Green.
The home inspector says strange Cyrillic lettering and a ".ru" address left no question who had broken into his account.
"The email address on the account was a Russian account," Green said. "And I have never done business with Russia."
So, he filed a fraud complaint with PayPal, which is now looking into it. Representatives told him it would refund his money if they determine it was a fraudulent attack.
Russian hackers claim they recently accessed millions of Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft passwords.
Paypal can't confirm a connection from that breach to this case, and says there has been no breach of PayPal.
Rather, the company says what typically happens is someone gains access to your login credentials and password and breaks in that way.
But the respected Krebs on Security blog says Hackers can get into all sorts of accounts with stolen email and passwords, and then requesting a password reset. Founder Brian Krebs even says his personal PayPal account was recently hacked this way.
Paypal says "the safety and security of our customers' accounts, data and money is PayPal's highest priority."
It offers the following advice:
- Never use your PayPal password for other sites, especially your email accounts.
- Sign up for PayPall's "Security Key" that sends you a text to your phone instantly if money is requested.
- Change passwords frequently. CLICK HERE for advice on choosing a good password.
That's what Green is doing.
"Change your password regularly, change your password so it can't be hit, and use letters and numbers and everything," Green said.
That way you don't waste your money.
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