Is PayPal safe to send and receive payments online?
In today’s vulnerable world, safety is everything. Making your PayPal safe means that you are adding a security level to your bank account.
According to Wikipedia, PayPal was developed and launched as a money transfer service at Confinity in 1999, funded by John Malloy from BlueRun Ventures. The company was ranked 134th on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest US corporations by revenue.
PayPal is also way ahead of other online payment companies. The following graph explains the situation well.
However, for PayPal, being the world’s top online payment system poses threats too. The bitter fact is that it’s also the hot favorite target of scammers and thieves.
“Phishers frequently exploit the brand name,” warns John Breyault, the National Consumers League’s vice president of public policy, telecommunications, and fraud.
Phishing is the most common method used by scammers.
Phishing is the practice of getting customers’ usernames and passwords through fraud and malicious software with the aim of accessing their accounts.
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So the question is: Is Paypal Safe?
The answer is YES. if you use PayPal, you can easily enhance your security level by following these 5 simple and easy steps:
1. Never Click on Links From ‘Paypal’ Email
Never, ever click on any of the links in an email from Paypal, no matter how official it appears. Instead of clicking on the links in email, open a new search browser window and then type Paypal URL into the address bar to go directly to their website.
As a general rule, only log into the Paypal site if you type the address into the browser’s address bar.
If you receive an email that appears official but is suspicious, forward it to spoof(at)paypal.com, and they will be able to tell you whether it was a valid email from them or not.
To avoid confusion, Paypal will never send you an email instructing you to log into their site via a link in their email.
2. Confirm If The Email is Genuine
If you receive an email from Paypal informing you that your account has been closed or that another urgent matter has arisen, there are a few things you can look at to determine whether the email is legitimate or not.
To do this, navigate to the menu option in your mail that allows you to view the email’s source code.
Find the link (search the page for the link text that sends you to Paypal of the link and you should find the link).
The link should look something like the following:
< a href=’http: // {urladdress}’> {link text you just searched for}< / a >
Here’s an example of a spoofed link:
ipox.xx.com.my/xxxxxx/paypal.com/xxxxx
Do you notice that the domain name is ‘ipox.xx.com.my’. There is a paypal.com in the line, but it is the name of a directory in ‘ipox.xx.com.my’.
If you click this link, the browser will take you to ‘ipox.xx.com.my’, a very official-looking Paypal page but in fact, having no association with Paypal. Users see a paypal.com in the URL and so they consider that they are at the Paypal site, and they see the Paypal login page, but they couldn’t be more wrong!
Following is another example of such phishing email … watch carefully the spots you can identify for such mail.
These poor unsuspecting users will type in their username and password and will get a message such as a site is down for maintenance or some other fake message about why they can’t see their account information. At this point, it is too late. The scammer already got the username and password.
3. Watch Carefully That What Do Spam Messages Look Like?
These phishing (scamming) messages come in many forms.
One form is the standard ‘Your account will be deleted if you do not log in immediately.’
Another message reads, ‘We have detected unusual activity on your account, and it has been suspended.’ Another message that appears to be newer is “Receipt of your payment to SOMECOMPANYNAME.”
If you notice, all of these messages get to the heart of human behavioural responses and immediately put us in an emotional state where we are less likely to use our intellect and simply react to the message.
If we imprint tip #1 into our brains, which is never click on any of the links in an email that looks like it comes from Paypal, we can identify such messages whenever these appear.
4. Check Your Account Frequently
This is a small step but it is the best one to make your PayPal safe.
Typically, thieves begin draining an account with small withdrawals — as little as $5 — that a user might not notice. Then it started happening more frequently and the amount, too, spiraled to hundreds.
The solution is simple. Check your account frequently and if found any kind of mistreatment, no matter how small it seems, immediately contact PayPal to sort out the issue.
5. How to Make PayPal Safe If You Entered Your Information into One of These Phishing Sites
If you were caught up in the emotion and entered your Paypal details before noticing it was a fake scam site, you should go to Paypal.com, login, and change your password right away.
You should also keep an eye on your account for any suspicious activity. If you notice any suspicious activity, fill out the ‘unauthorized activity form’ preset in the ‘Protection Policies’ section of the website’s help center.
If you are feeling highly vulnerable, contact the support desk and report the incident to a support specialist as soon as possible.
Bonus Tips
Never use public wifi to access your PayPal account.
Read PayPal’s policies to ensure that Buyer Protection is available for any transaction you’re concerned about.
Don’t use direct bank transfer or debit cards for sending and receiving payments through PayPal. Use your credit card instead.
Keep your software up-to-date – especially security software.
PayPal’s Buyer Protection Program might reimburse you in case of fraud provided that you report them quickly.
Final Words
Being online means being open to frauds and scams.
Safety and security are everything in such an environment.
Using the tips listed above, we can make our online Paypal transactions more secure. While there are certainly exceptions, many of these cases of online fraud are the result of user error rather than the fault of the payment processing company or merchant.
Online safety 101 should be required for anyone entering the Internet world today, but a good dose of common sense will get you quite far.
