daserpent
Senior Member
- May 10, 2010
- 812
- 489
I have read a lot of posts at BHW about people are being scammed everyday. Many of them are PayPal scams so, I have written down a few tips that can help you protect your money and account.
1) Always sell to a confirmed address of a bidder. A Confirmed Address is either the address at which the buyer receives their credit card statements, or an address of the buyer which PayPal has confirmed outside the credit card system. You should not be selling or providing services to anyone with an un-verified account. It is the first sign of a scammer.
2) If he/she has order a web related product or service, Ask them what forums they frequent and what their usernames are. Most people use the same username across all forums. Since, he has ordered a web related product, he must be member of a few forums. Then go to those forums and check what kind of a track record they have ( Number of posts, iTrader ratings, comments on the profile and if they have mentioned msn or yahoo in the profiles )
3) If you are making a deal over a forum or a JV, ask them for their msn or skype addresses. I would not get into a JV for another week or so. I like to know how active the other guy is at skype etc. That helps you ensure that he can be contacted anytime and you don't have to rely just on PMs to get in touch with him.
4) Always try to get a proof of delivery (Signature Confirmation with Delivery Confirmation) in written. That way, if he does ask for a refund claiming he never got the product or services, you have something that you can show paypal as proof.
5) Save all emails, chats, PMs, info ( Name, address, usernames ) of the person with you. You can produce these as proofs in case he files a dispute.
6) Go through all paypal TOS so that you can be sure of what is right and what is wrong. This is one thing that many of us ignore.
You can also protect your paypal account from being hacked or phished by :
1) Never EVER click on a suspicious looking email.
PayPal doesn't send demanding emails insisting you login immediately or else have your account shut down. So, if you do get such an email, copy-paste the entire content and send it to paypal support.If you receive an email that didn't address you by your first name and surname and then asks you to click on a link and log in using your details, you may well be revealing your details to a fraudulent website. Instead, open your browser, type in www.paypal.com and then login.
2) Upgrade your internet browser.
Upgrading your browser will greatly reduce your chances of experiencing web forgery. If you visit a known fraudulent site in a newer browser, you'll be alerted and in many cases, the browser will close the site automatically.
3) Add an extra layer of protection by using SMS SECURITY KEY.
More details about SMS SECURITY KEY at - https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/safetyadvice/SecurityKey.htm
4) Gmail users can Enable the Iconix Email Identification feature.
If you are a Gmail user, it's easy to identify legitimate PayPal emails. You can simply enable an icon which will only show up when an email is from PayPal. So when you receive an email from paypal, you will see a key icon next to the message in your Inbox. To enable this feature in Gmail, go to 'Settings', 'Labs', then tick the Enable box next to the 'Authentication icon for verified senders' option and click on 'Save Changes'.
These are few tips I have gathered over time. You can now protect yourself better against scams and phishing attacks. Please feel free to leave more tips if I have missed them here.
Just hit 'Thanks' if you find these tips helpful.
1) Always sell to a confirmed address of a bidder. A Confirmed Address is either the address at which the buyer receives their credit card statements, or an address of the buyer which PayPal has confirmed outside the credit card system. You should not be selling or providing services to anyone with an un-verified account. It is the first sign of a scammer.
2) If he/she has order a web related product or service, Ask them what forums they frequent and what their usernames are. Most people use the same username across all forums. Since, he has ordered a web related product, he must be member of a few forums. Then go to those forums and check what kind of a track record they have ( Number of posts, iTrader ratings, comments on the profile and if they have mentioned msn or yahoo in the profiles )
3) If you are making a deal over a forum or a JV, ask them for their msn or skype addresses. I would not get into a JV for another week or so. I like to know how active the other guy is at skype etc. That helps you ensure that he can be contacted anytime and you don't have to rely just on PMs to get in touch with him.
4) Always try to get a proof of delivery (Signature Confirmation with Delivery Confirmation) in written. That way, if he does ask for a refund claiming he never got the product or services, you have something that you can show paypal as proof.
5) Save all emails, chats, PMs, info ( Name, address, usernames ) of the person with you. You can produce these as proofs in case he files a dispute.
6) Go through all paypal TOS so that you can be sure of what is right and what is wrong. This is one thing that many of us ignore.
You can also protect your paypal account from being hacked or phished by :
1) Never EVER click on a suspicious looking email.
PayPal doesn't send demanding emails insisting you login immediately or else have your account shut down. So, if you do get such an email, copy-paste the entire content and send it to paypal support.If you receive an email that didn't address you by your first name and surname and then asks you to click on a link and log in using your details, you may well be revealing your details to a fraudulent website. Instead, open your browser, type in www.paypal.com and then login.
2) Upgrade your internet browser.
Upgrading your browser will greatly reduce your chances of experiencing web forgery. If you visit a known fraudulent site in a newer browser, you'll be alerted and in many cases, the browser will close the site automatically.
3) Add an extra layer of protection by using SMS SECURITY KEY.
More details about SMS SECURITY KEY at - https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/safetyadvice/SecurityKey.htm
4) Gmail users can Enable the Iconix Email Identification feature.
If you are a Gmail user, it's easy to identify legitimate PayPal emails. You can simply enable an icon which will only show up when an email is from PayPal. So when you receive an email from paypal, you will see a key icon next to the message in your Inbox. To enable this feature in Gmail, go to 'Settings', 'Labs', then tick the Enable box next to the 'Authentication icon for verified senders' option and click on 'Save Changes'.
These are few tips I have gathered over time. You can now protect yourself better against scams and phishing attacks. Please feel free to leave more tips if I have missed them here.
Just hit 'Thanks' if you find these tips helpful.