This is a story about how my PayPal account was hacked and how I got it back. I had an unlucky day but with a little touch of lady luck’s blessings that helped me get back to square one. This story offers good advice for all PayPal account holders in the world.
Day 1: 20:30 EST
I just logged into my Gmail account to check emails, I was surprised to see 4 emails from PayPal. 1. Password changed, 2. Payment sent to some email address 3. Bank accounts deleted 4. Primary email address changed. OMG! I had $X,XXX in PayPal balance. While viewing these emails, my gmail also went offline. When I tried to log in again, it didn’t. The hacker watched my every move. My primary email ID was the one I used for all my business and personal contacts and I had 14,000 emails on file and chat conversations.
I felt blindfolded and abandoned in an unknown forest. I just couldn’t believe this had happened to me. I had Norton antivirus + norton internet security and Spyware doctor, both licensed versions! I know all about fake emails and phishing stuff, never clicked on suspicious links.
I realized that… “You are safe only if no one attacks you.”
After a few minutes, someone added me to Yahoo messenger and said ‘Hi’. I assumed it was the hacker and it was. The first sentence he said to me was ‘Hello, don’t worry, you’ll get everything back in 7 days’… he told me that he was a good guy and that it was the first time he hacked someone. He also told me that he really needed the funds and that he would return them to me within 7 days. I almost believed him. I told him to give me back my gmail account and told him that it is very important to me and to my surprise he gave it back to me. He asked me what password I needed for the new account and set it up. I logged in and changed the password again. I was happy that I got my gmail back, but I was still very uncomfortable from the feeling that someone had been watching me for so long!
It was late at night, I was sleepy but I had to suck it up. I backed up all my files on my iPod and did a system recovery. After 45 minutes, my PC was like new. Again I changed all the passwords and went back to sleep at midnight.
Day 2 – 6:00 a.m. IST
I saw that my friend was online. I talked to him and told him the whole story. He scolded me that I haven’t responded on time. He was so sure the hacker was no good and he talked to me to make sure I didn’t call PayPal. The hacker didn’t accomplish that, but he set me back 10 hours nonetheless. I spent almost 30 minutes waiting for the PayPal representative and then someone showed up. I told PayPal the whole story and they listened carefully. I was assured that ‘I will not be responsible for unauthorized payments sent from my account’. I felt good but not very good, I wasn’t so sure that I would get my money back. I did what I could have done and I needed to relax. I rested from this problem.
Day 3 – 7pm EST
I called PayPal again. It takes a lot of patience to connect with them. It took me a few minutes to detect my account. They told me “Your fraudulent payments were reversed, you checked your account.” I just jumped right there and was so happy. But I COULD NOT LOG IN to my PayPal because the password was not with me! 🙁
I couldn’t reset my password because the hacker changed the security questions too! They advised me to send all the documents and they will help me to recover the password.
After a few minutes, the hacker reconnected. And hahaha what nerves did he get!!..he asked me to send him the documents because he said that my account was limited and needs to be unblocked! I refrained from saying abusive words and just handled the situation and tune out.
Day 4 – 6 p.m. EST
I logged into Yahoo Messenger and saw that the hacker had left me an offline message. wow! got frustrated, I guess. He left me the PayPal email and password. I connected and viola! I entered my PP. It was a lovely moment… The balance was intact. All four fraudulent payments were reversed. However, the account was limited. I just printed the cover page of the fax and sent them the documents.
Day 4 – 3pm IST
I received an email that my PayPal account has been restored. I immediately went in and sent 4 large payments to my friends and family. I could breathe again!
Now, what’s next?… everything is back to square one! Now that I have learned a good lesson. If we think something like “This can never happen to me” in reality you attract that situation and within a few days you realize… the dream comes true… although in this case it is a bad dream.
I contacted my friends and they all told me that I have to leave Norton and Spyware Doctor and buy Kaspersky because that is the best on the market. I went to that site and reviewed their products. They had antivirus and Internet Security 7.0. The antivirus comes integrated in Internet Security and therefore it is enough to buy the latter. For one year it costs around $60 and for 2 years it costs around $95. I bought it immediately and installed it, activated it. Again I changed all my important passwords.
Bottom line: If you think it won’t happen to you, one day it will and you’ll think back to the day you thought it wouldn’t happen to you.
Now that I got my money back, but it may not happen all the time to all people. You just need to be on top of it.
Good luck!