I know this has been brought up before... BUT... Has any other donation payment options been bantered about?

My sense or security with Pay-Pal is not the best right now, after having two payments having been made through my account to the tune of $300. Now I have played the dutiful customer roll of notifying them of "phish-mails" I get, which I get fairly regularily. Now, with the last "phish-mail" I reported, I havn't even gotten a response from them as to the status of my report (yes or no to it being a "phish-mail").

Needless to say, with new card in hand, I am quite reluctant to having them handle any future transactions. To Pay-Pals credit, they handled my situation quite promptly. But, I also know of others who have lost money, in the thousands, thru Pay-Pal/E-Bay.

I know Pay-Pal isn't the only online payment option out there...

Curtie... just curious... did the problem originate as a result of responding to a "phishing" message? I personally have used PayPal since it became available, and knock on wood, haven't experienced any problems. I'm glad they resolved your issue... but that's concerning to hear that you had friends who lost so much money.

I was surprised he HAD friends with so much money

Actually, no, it wasn't due to a "phishing" mail. I have already been aware of such things going on.

Keifer:
*putting hands to chest*
Oooo... ouch. :o(

Actually, they are not friends, just people I work with that have a household income at least 4 times what I make.. hehe

I doubt that eBay or PayPal has addressed it publically... as I haven't read anything on their sites about the problem... but then again I wasn't looking for that. Do you know if they've made mention of this anywhere? With the volume of transactions they do... you would think an issue such as this would be major!

That, I don't know... All I can say for sure is, I would greatly prefer not to use Pay-Pal at this time.

I havent seen anything.. and I used PayPal today and eBay the other day..

I Have been selling and buying on ebay for over 7 years.
USING PAYPAL all the while....
I have nothing but praise for paypal....
Had attempted charge backs in my ebay biz...and paypal stomped their attempts. Was ripped off by a seller and paypal refunded me. I think they are fantastic. :)

From what I hear, paypal is mainly a pain if you are suspected of doing something wrong. They will freeze your account and give you little recourse in getting your money back.

I've been using Paypal and Ebay for many years as well and am happy that I have never had a problem with either.

Well, perhaps my situation is a fluke or something.. but the phish-mails continue and I still haven't heard anything about the last one I sent in to them. :o(

Well, go figure... I thought I'd give pay-pal another shot and donate to Caedes again, sInce all of the Phish-mails stopped with my new card. Guess what... the phishers are casting their lines out yet again.... *grumble, grumble, grumble*

I think that the phishing emails are related to your use of ebay, not paypal. I say this because it is easy to find information about people on ebay (public listings), but paypal has no such available information. The phishers just assume that you have a paypal account if you are on ebay since ebay and paypal are owned by the same company.

I don't use E-Bay. Infact, the last time I bought anything from there is about 8 years ago. I however, did just start using my Pay-pal account again. :o(

I just find it interesting that the phish-mails stopped after I disabled my old card,and they started back up after I used started using my new card.

Hackers of the world unite! 8•P

To combat phishing scams, Pay Pal members can soon add an extra level of protection to their accounts using a Security Key. This portable device generates a unique 6-digit security code roughly every 30 seconds. You enter that code when you log in to Pay Pal (or eBay) with your usual username and password, then it expires so no-one else can use it. The PayPal Security Key is $5 (£2.54) from: www.paypal.com/securitykey

I'd be wary of attributing the phishing emails to use of PayPal. I get phishing emails which assume I have a PayPal account but I do not and never have. And, if I have my way, I never will. I believe it is possible to use PayPal in some cases without an account, but I don't know if this is better or worse. I think I did this once as I was desperate and had no choice, but I certainly avoid this, too, if I can.

I'm curious about the key. It is supposed to use an algorithm which is "unique to your device" to generate the security codes. Then when you log in, you use this security code to authenticate. But, if you don't have it with you or lose the key, it says you can still log in by "confirming account ownership". Why don't they just have people do that instead of selling them keys? I'm confused...

- cfr

FYI: Some links of possible interest

Warning: These are just links thrown up by google and/or slashdot and may be wholly unreliable. I've only picked links, moreover, which look as though they might not wholly support PayPal's claims, so there's an obvious bias in this listing.

1. www.tamebay.com
2. Baltimore BusinessJournal on a Paypal settlement with various states
3. paypalsucks.com

- cfr

Paypalsucks.com... very interesting website. Anyone involved with paypal should read the forums there... I've read it for about ten minutes and I am now going to close my account. They don't deserve our business.

I got a bit of a chuckle, over this. As it reminded me of the browser, IE vs. Firefox, debate... Bigger doesn't always mean better.