To all the Paypal users out there, esp those who have their credit cards saved in their accounts. My PayPal account got hacked two days back and someone made purchases on farfetch worth 2,739.86 USD (INR 1,73,831.85) and (possibly) tried to ship it to Brooklyn, New York (I could see a new shipping address added to my Paypal account). As luck would have it, the transaction made was slightly over the limit I have set for my credit card and thus the transaction got declined. Had the transaction been even slightly under the limit, I would have been royally screwed. I have since then taken necessary steps to secure my account and I am touch with Paypal (and the retailer website) to try to understand what went wrong and how can it be prevented in future. So a request to all the credit card users out there: do take all the necessary steps required to keep your accounts safe. I know incidents like these dont bother many unless one is directly affected by them, but as they, better safe than sorry. - Keep changing your passwords regularly. - Keep your passwords hard to guess. - Keep passwords of your accounts, esp where card/account details are saved different from your other/regular passwords. - Keep your credit card limits to a number which is as per your requirement, not what the bank thinks is good for you. Banks have a habit of continuously raising the limit. - Set sms/email alerts for all the transactions happening on your accounts/cards. And of course, dont ignore any such alerts. - If possible, dont save your card details. I know its convenient to use one-click checkout, but if Paypal can be hacked then I wont consider many other websites out there as safe. We are fast moving towards the IoT age and it wont be long when we will be neck deep in it. You wont really be able to enjoy all the benefits until you apply the safety-first policy. Stay safe, Stay happy.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 06:18:50 +0000
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