There is no federal law that says you are not liable for unauthorized PayPal charges. The big thing is that Paypal is NOT regulated like banks or credit cards. Lesson #2: Never use PayPal to buy things online instead of a credit card unless absolutely necessary, usually for eBay. There are also several other reports of unauthorized Skype/Paypal charges on the Skype forums. The criminals gain access, change the linked e-mail and password so the original owner has no access, and can then sell or use the Skype credit. I bet there are a lot of abandoned Skype accounts with simple or unsecure passwords. I had no idea that buying one joke bumper sticker from Zazzle in 2009 could be the equivalent of an open wallet.Īpparently, I’ve been vulnerable for years but I never noticed until now. If not, you should treat your accounts at those merchants as carefully as your bank accounts, because they literally have access to every linked bank account and credit card at PayPal.

My recommendation is to make every single one inactive immediately. To find this list, log into your account and then go to My Account > Profile > My money > My preapproved payments. Lesson #1: If you use PayPal at all, check your preapproved merchant list immediately. (I am usually really careful about this sort of thing, so I am quite mad at myself!) My suspicion is that it was buried somewhere into a default checkbox that I didn’t undo, or worse it was just hidden in the terms and conditions fine print. Although I have bought credit from Skype before, I don’t ever recall signing up for any of these subscription-style plans at any merchant. This is meant for monthly subscriptions and the sort. I didn’t even know this, but PayPal has a program of “preapproved” payments where a merchant can repeatedly charge your account without the need to type in your PayPal password. Long story short, it was my Skype account that was hacked. How? Was my PayPal account hacked? I changed my password, and then another unauthorized payment went through! I logged into my account (manually) and saw that multiple $35 charges did indeed go through. But the domain on the e-mail checked out. At first I thought it was just another phishing attempt. Tonight, I got several email confirmations for separate €25 Paypal payments to “Skype Communications Sarl”.

Get free skype credit 2014