I learned a lesson recently. I tried to purchase a Milwaukee buffer from the internet from what looked like a legitimate site."SHOP RITE.com" Giving me added (false) confidence was the PAYPAL ONLY payment option. There was contact info etc. I DID NOT verify the contact info until after And all of that WAS BOGUS. a search for the particular Milwaukee Buffer model I was seeking produced this website as a Google search. I have done this EXACT same thing a billion times. I made my purchase AND decided to give my personal info to make "an account" at checkout. I could theoretically have checked out as "a guest".. In the future I will ONLY do that check out as a guest to make sure the transaction happens the way it should before giving up passwords etc in an account set up....This was a fairly sophisticated operation that was a complete fraud. I DID recover my funds from PayPal. What I did NOT recover was personal info including one of the passwords that I may or may not re use for these type of accounts I set up....I know many of you do the same with using a password for more than one thing. Well THAT password for THIS account is now dead to me.....anywhere else it may have ALSO been used has a new password now. Very cleaver how this was done...I believe the perps intent was to collect passwords and try his hand at identity etc theft.....When checking out I suggest... unless it is a very trusted organization/company that you check out as a guest and afterward decide if you will make a more permanent account where you give up more info after you get the item and things go as you had thought they would.... What triggered my first suspicions was that a confirmation of account set up email was NOT sent to me.....that caused me to go try to contact them...a false phone number was offered. The poor person receiving calls had a voice mail message warning that a scam was underway.....Im sure that phone number was deactivated in short order...I was upset with PayPal originally because they had no provisions to talk to them and they seemed unresponsive to act QUICKLY,,,,I wanted them to call that Listed "Contact" phone number to get the same experience I had....they have no provision to act that responsively. Like I said they did act in my behalf inside of a weeks time...but there was NO guarantee that that was going to happen and it was uncomfortable at best to just file an internet only complaint were you had no real way to make your claim and refute anything the other party had possibly claimed. The PayPal code for the transaction from the "Seller" was "Services Rendered" or something like that where it would have been difficult to refute from the consumers end.....Buyer" beware....is alive and well for how you should treat websites...AND PayPal....

 

I've had a Ebay and PayPal account, buy and sell on a regular basis from 2001 to present and have never had that or a similar problem. Not sure what happened to you, Sorry for the hassle.

 

If it is a site I may only go to this1 time I always go as a guest if I can.
Good to hear you got your money back.
Dave ----

 

And Paypal failed me. I dont really trust them anymore.

 

I would advise changing your PayPal password if you haven’t already. If this fraud site took your PayPal account info and processed a payment, good chance they now have your PayPal account login.

i strongly recommend using a Password vault type program (Keepass is good) to save passwords for websites you make purchases on, and use unique passwords. Keepass (and I’m sure others) will generate a password for you, and eliminates your need to remember tons of passwords... you just need to remember the password to log in to the password vault.

I’m an IT Pro, and I’ve got 200+ logins to keep up with. No way to do that effectively without a good tool to help.

 

Im glad you have done well.and thanks for acknowledging the hassle.....I wouldnt take PayPal for granted if I were you...I will never look at PayPal the same again. PayPal never ONCE acted to comply with one of my most BASIC requests to have a SIMPLE phone conversation with me. While they did act in my favor with a refund they did not show me ANYTHING that they were there for me.I asked for a conversation even after they ruled in my favor because I wanted to talk to them and find out how to get an inside phone number to them. I have NOW heard over and over where MY STORY IS NOT UNIQUE....I wanted to ask PayPal what they know about crooks getting used up tracking numbers. the crooks know how to manipulate these used up tracking numbers showing a delivery was made for YOUR scam. How do the crooks lay their hands on USED UP tracking numbers where they are able to manipulate the previously used tracking number to show a delivery is made to suit THEIR PURPOSE? In my case the scammer did not have the information correct but I tell you it was compelling enough to have made it difficult to refute that the transaction for sure did NOT occur....the description for the item he was taking payment for was listed as "services rendered" That type of allowed description could cover anything....and be impossible to refute. Ebay wont let the buyer and seller talk to each other....they dont want any "side" deals done that cut them out of the fees they are due....a simple conversation to talk about the best way to receive a purchased can not occur.....I hear you that this system works for you...Im happy for you...I hope all of that continues...I now know it isnt guaranteed to have that happen.

 

I WAS against changing my password before. I grew leary of how these hackers impact my life with having to have a system to just remember what password I have....it also seemed that if they wanted in they would just do it anyway so why should I suffer the impact of changing passwords.....I guess prior I was VERY lucky. I will use a password generator where I can now....thank you for educating me(us) we all need the internet and we need it to function in a fair responsible, FLOWING way...no hiccups from scammers, and other bad guy efforts...thanks again for your help.

 

A little while back I had my paypal account hacked into. My credit card company turned off my card in the blink of an eye. I will Never use paypal again for any thing. How I order stuff now from a company like Summit or Speedway Motors is I fill out the info. so I can get the shipping/ sales tax info. and then I send them a USPS money order. So far it's worked pretty good knock on wood.