Good day, I just got off the phone talking to Paypal representatives.  Over the weekend, my paypal acoount was hacked.  Funds were transferred from my account and the feds are investigating the issue.  I was able to catch this when it happened and get the funds moved back in my account.  Here is what you can do to protect yourself.

1. Change your password and make it pretty cryptic with a mixture of letters and numbers.
2. Ask Paypal to send you a free card key.

The card key is a random generated number that you attach to your password everytime you access your account.

So, I just wanted to pass along this information along to everyone who shops online which in today's economy is everyone.  Protect yourself and be safe!  Merry Christmas!

cheers!

Thanks good to know

Wow!  Thanks for the info.

Thanks a lot, will be keeping an eye on it!

Scary. Nothing is safe these days.
Thanks for the warning.

thx Dennis. I will "improve" my password ASAP.
mgg

10-4, Roger that

Thanks a lot Dennis! Good Info!  :  )

Dennis, sorry to hear that. What number did you call?

Thanks Dennis....



Ong

Jakarta, Indonesia

Thanks, Dennis.  Did you happen to discover if you had any virus/malware on your computer as well?

Thank You

Greenfig, I called 888-221-1161.  They assigned me a reference code to dial in after the tone.  This confirms I was the "real" me.  After that, they were able to talk to me and walk thru my account information. 
Harvey, my home computer does have spyware on it but I only use that computer once maybe 2 times in 3 months.  I use my IPAD for everything.  According to Paypal, they got hacked which is why they are sending everyone the credit card key.  I'm an IT guy and I caught it in time.  But the best advice I can give everyone is to use level 3 security.  And that card key is level 3.  It's kinda like having a virtual private network.

I never thought something like this would happen to me but it did.  It happened to my son last year when he tried to file his taxes.  His identity was stolen and it took an act of congress to get the IRS to recognize the problem.  My wife's identity was stolen about 10 years ago because she has a very common name.  It took years to straighten that mess out.

The moral of the story is protect yourself.

A couple of years ago, my PP accnt was also compromised.
I caught it in time before any real damage was done.
I then changed my pwd to a long/cryptic form.
Now I 'improved' it further.

Breaking the pwd (code), should 'lock' the accnt after 3 'bad' trials.
This tells me that much more is involved in them hackers doing so...

Dennis, thanks for the (current) heads-up.

I just set up my iPhone key card. 

Amazingly I received a suspicious email this morning with an attachment that reads as follows:

Update Personal Information

Dear Valued Customer,

     It has come to our attention that your PayPal account information needs to be updated as
part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud
on our website. If you could please take a few minutes out of your online experience and update
your personal records, you will not run into any problems in the future with the online service.

However, failure to update your records could result in account suspension. Please update your
records as soon as possible.

To update your account information, please download and open the attachment file that we sent
via this email, and simply open it with your web browser.

Once you have updated your account records, any activities going through your account will no
longer be interrupted.

We apologize for any inconvenience. Please understand that this procedure is to keep you and
your account in a protected state.

Copyright © 1999 - 2013 PayPal. All rights reserved.



The email address was different from what I'm familiar with and the fact that they ask you to download something is fishy.

Its pretty sad that these low-lifes are always finding a new way to rip us off.   They said watch out for websites that look like the real deal and are a copy to...????

@Sas (Re:post#16)

That is a classical case of "phishing", where hackers send a bogus
email directing to a bogus/fake web-site asking for personal info.

Do a goolge search on  "phishing" (examples).
e.g.,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD ASAP!!!!

Thank You George,

These days, I never click on attachments. I've had my PC infected a few times in the past. Now I manually write the website address I seek, especially if it is a financial website.