Sunday, October 9, 2011

5 Useful Paypal Safety Tips

Borrowed from http://www.familyhomesecurity.com/5-useful-paypal-safety-tips/

Today, many consumers use Paypal for everything from purchasing eBay items to managing small business transactions. However, you may not realize that Paypal was created just ten years ago (in the year 2000), as a result of a merger between X.com and Confinity. In October of 2002, Paypal was purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion dollars. In 2009, Paypal’s total payment volume was around $71 billion dollars, up 19% from 2008. In total, there are around 185 million Paypal accounts currently in existence.

If you use Paypal, it’s important to realize that it should be treated just like any other financial transaction. Due to the large number of people who have had their Paypal information compromised, you need to be extremely careful. Here are a few quick tips to help you use Paypal in a safe and effective manner.

1. Choose a Secure Password

Many online security experts recommend choosing a password for your financial accounts that will be extremely difficult to guess. The best password incorporates a combination of letters, numbers and special characters. For example, your password could be Dk8y12:r8. While a combination password may be difficult for you to remember, it can greatly decrease the chance that your Paypal account will be compromised.

2. Never Click Email Links!

The importance of not clicking email links to login to your Paypal account cannot be over-emphasized! Many scammers will send you an email that appears to be officially from Paypal, which often includes a link to prompt you to login to your paypal account. Even if the link looks legitimate, and takes you to a site that looks exactly like Paypal, NEVER login to an email-linked website. An illegal practice called “Phishing” allows criminals to steal your Paypal login information, possibly locking you out of your Paypal account (and resulting in a loss of all funds). To login to your Paypal account, always manually navigate to http://www.paypal.com in your browser’s web address bar.

3. Don’t Give Out Your Information.

This may seem like common sense, but it’s extremely important that your Paypal login information remains private. Even if you have a small business that is owned by two parties, never share your personal Paypal information. Instead, consider setting up a business account that can be safely accessed by all required parties.

4. Check Your Balance.

Out of the 185 million Paypal accounts, about 75 million of them are considered to be “active”. Periodically checking the balance of your Paypal account can allow you to quickly discover if fraudulent charges have been made on your account. It also allows you to check on any potential disputes, chargebacks and holds placed on your account’s funds.

5. Don’t Login from Public Computers.

Every time you check your Paypal balance from a public computer, you put your account information at risk. This is because public computers may contain malware or viruses that automatically log keystroke information. This may mean that everything you type is recorded in a “transcript”, and sent to the creator of the virus or malware program, allowing them to gain access to your account. Though many public computers may be safe (and free of dangerous programs), there isn’t any way for you to be completely sure that your information will be safe. When in doubt, it always pays to err on the side of caution.

No comments:

Post a Comment