What do you think of when you think about paying for a purchase online using one of the best known "pay accounts" around - PayPal? I, like many others, thought of it as one of the safest ways to make a purchase, and I am not alone. Thousands of people everyday use these so called "safe" sites that are connected to your bank account.
For years at these sites have worked in many lives without a hitch.
However recently two Mid-Prairie students, one who was my son, joined legions of adults as their online PayPal payment accounts were hacked into and all funds drained from their accounts. If that wasn't bad enough, said site had some sort of "hole" within the system that allowed the hacker to access their bank accounts and drain all the funds there as well.
Immediately upon discovering the situation, law enforcement was contacted, as well as the bank, and the search began to try to find out who and where the account had been hacked from.
Remember PayPal's statement, "Our multiple antifraud systems at work for you" and "Privacy to Fight Identity Theft. What we do to help safeguard your information." It was naturally assumed that this site would stand behind their promises and would help restore the monies to their rightful accounts. Wrong.
In five hours, one student involved was caught in a never ending phone conversation with no less than six PayPal service reps. One would think that all the hassle and hours spent trying to find an answer to the problem would be taken care of. Wrong again. All the phone call accomplished was that never once did PayPal admit it had a problem and that the two accounts had been hacked into.
The consensus of PayPal after this five hour marathon was despite the fact that law enforcement and the bank involved had affidavits stating the charges were not even close to items these victims purchased, was that the students committed fraud - that the students made every one of the purchases from the same IP address and thus PayPal considers it as theft, that they are most likely ordering the items and having them drop shipped elsewhere, thus committing fraud. Translation: "Too bad, so sad, you are out all your money and we are not discussing the situation again."

The saddest part about the whole thing is one young man lost over $600 and the other young man over $5,000." Both individuals have proof as to where they were when the charges were made on their accounts, but proof did not seem to be enough for PayPal. They were found guilty and sentenced to empty bank accounts without any further discussion allowed and without a trial of their peers.
Trying in vain to explain the accounts most likely hacked into from school computers that all use the same server (thus the same IP address) the statement from PayPal was, "Schools have different IP address' for each classroom" and that was that.
Admittedly, these sites are not to be accessed from school by students, (it is a Mid-Prairie rule that all students realize and have been told time and again). But the truth of the matter is, they are being accessed and not just by students. One teacher panicked when she was told about this situation and related she regularly did EBAY business during her free time, after school or during lunch, as did many of her fellow educators.
And trying to contact said company is all but impossible. The hassles begin with trying to find PayPals phone number, which is all but buried onsite. Then phone connections are transfered only to cause the victim to repeat ad nauseum the same story - and get the same reply, "What do you want me to do about it?"
Stating, "I want you to make this right and admit that you, PayPal, messed up. I want the monies returned and I want to speak to someone who knows more about computers than my dog. I want to speak to someone who realizes that not only were these unauthorized purchases but that said students were in class when the purchases were made."
Unfortunately those requests were somehow lost in translation.
With law enforcement and the bank involved, as well as Mid-Prairie's stellar computer guru hard at work on the case, I have no doubt all will be settled correctly and the funds will be returned in time.
But in the meantime, there are at least two young people who have lost faith in a site that promised to protect them from fraudulent charges, only after obtaining them as clients, to turn around and claim they were guilty of fraud themselves.
Checking a bit further online, I discovered numerous anti-Pay-Pal websites.
Apparently this is not the first time. For those of you who wish to know more about the problems, Google "PayPal"and problems with hacking or something similar. I found entire websites dedicated to instances in which PayPal had broken its promises, refused to stand up to its site statements, claimed fraud when none existed, refused to right wrongs, froze accounts for no reason and caused more heartache than help.
For those of you who have suffered at the hands of hackers, you have my sympathies. For those who have not, I urge you to check your balance on PayPal and a separate checking account for such on-line business.
And when it comes to your kids. law enforcement suggests telling them not to use such on-line services unless they have your permission, have secured the account at every turn, do not share passwords and under no circumstances should they use school computers to access their account (even if they have permission to use it for personal use).
Using any sort of personal information on a computer that is also used by hundreds of others, despite the safeguards put into place, is dangerous.
So, is there a safe way to shop online? Sure there is. Use a secure credit card that you know will work with you should a problem like this arise and make sure their customer service is top notch.
My account is one with a name anyone would recognize and I am extremely satisfied with their customer service. In fact, just two days ago, a representative called to see if I authorized a certain charge as I had never shopped on that particular site before. Not many cards will actually check suspicious charges for you as opposed to simply give the "security" angle lip service and take it from me, I am more than pleased that mine goes that extra mile.
And in addition, do not use a computer that is used by a great deal of others for sensitive transactions, and make sure you not only change your password and keep good software in place to help keep out the bad seeds onsite.