From PayPal To PayPauper

A thousand times a day, PayPal emails most of us and informs us that there’s been a grave compromise in our accounts. Would we like to just click this big bright button and fix it, please? And just like that, your entire savings has been funneled into a phisher’s pornography investment.

It happens all the time, to the point that actual emails from PayPal are viewed with leery suspicion. But even if you can get your money back after being victim to a PayPal crime, you’re still screwed. Take Jeff, for example, whose bank account was drained of thousands of dollars, leaving him with negative $760 and an extra $200 in overdraft fees, ticking upward by the minute.

PayPal’s going to refund his money, of course. But it’s going to take them 60 days. 60 days of being a pauper just because their system isn’t secure. And they won’t reimburse him for overdraft expenses.

Stories like this just give me the willies… I’m frickin’ paid through PayPal. Thanks, Mat!

From Paypal to the Poorhouse in One Easy Hour