How Safe Is PayPal?

[Coin]

I've been thinking of using a paypal account to buy some stuff from some of you here on this board. But I was wondering if someone could tell me if paypal is 100% secure or not? In other words, what are the different ways that someone can screw you over using paypal? Has anyone had an experience like that before?

Also...could someone tell me how a paypal account works? Do I need to open up a bank account? Could I have paypal put money directly into a debit card for me? Or could I use a pre-payed debit card with pay pal? Anyone know?

Would really appreciate this information. I just don't want to get conned out of my money. Not a good thing at all.

[phantasm]

There is no 100% secure way to purchase virtual items.

Your best bet is to do very thorough research on the seller, and use a credit card that will make it easy to reverse charges.

EDIT: gsauctions.com is pretty safe.

[Coin]

There is no 100% secure way to purchase virtual items.

Your best bet is to do very thorough research on the seller, and use a credit card that will make it easy to reverse charges.

EDIT: gsauctions.com is pretty safe.

Well thats true. But aside from the person not giving me the item I bought...is there any other way they could steal my identity or anything? Or could they somehow get ahold of my credit card number or something? Or does paypal prevent all that from happening?

Also..what about the other way around? What if I'm selling something...and I give the item to the person that I am selling it to, and he gives me the money through paypal, to my account or whatever, then is there any way he can all the sudden take his money back from me and run with it? Even after paypal has already given it to me?

[Kitsun]

Deal with people with good reputations and worry less. If someone is giving you a deal that is too good to be true, it usually is.

[Bobmuhthol]

Paypal freely distributes personal information, including credit card numbers.

[Coin]

Paypal freely distributes personal information, including credit card numbers.

So at anytime someone can just write down my credit card number and then they can go and drain it online? That doesn't sound very safe at all....Even if someone has a good record....

[Gan]

I've been thinking of using a paypal account to buy some stuff from some of you here on this board. But I was wondering if someone could tell me if paypal is 100% secure or not? In other words, what are the different ways that someone can screw you over using paypal? Has anyone had an experience like that before?

Also...could someone tell me how a paypal account works? Do I need to open up a bank account? Could I have paypal put money directly into a debit card for me? Or could I use a pre-payed debit card with pay pal? Anyone know?

Would really appreciate this information. I just don't want to get conned out of my money. Not a good thing at all.


Well thats true. But aside from the person not giving me the item I bought...is there any other way they could steal my identity or anything? Or could they somehow get ahold of my credit card number or something? Or does paypal prevent all that from happening?

Also..what about the other way around? What if I'm selling something...and I give the item to the person that I am selling it to, and he gives me the money through paypal, to my account or whatever, then is there any way he can all the sudden take his money back from me and run with it? Even after paypal has already given it to me?

Given your current level of understanding how online merchants work, I would highly recommend holding off making any online purchases until you have had a chance to research paypal and comprehend its methods.

After you're sufficient in the knowlege paypal, then I recommend running name searches here on the PC of possible merchants/people you are targeting to buy from (or sell to). Chances are that if the deal went sour - the merchant/person will be slammed here in some form or fashion.

I also 'second' the good reputation of GSAuctions.com with regards to buying or selling virtual Gemstone merchandise.

[AMUSED1]

Wow, if you just truly believed what someone said about Paypal giving out credit card numbers then I highly suggest you never ever get a credit card.

[Coin]

Alright thanks for the info guys. I'll have to do more research on the matter.

[radamanthys]

A temporary number might work. There's services online (including possibly your provider) that will issue a one-time use number.

[Widgets]

My advice. If you wish to get started by using Paypal and getting a feel of how the online merchanting stuff works, I'd first Buy and Sell from GSAuctions.com

You know they are 100% secure and in doing business with them, you'll get a better feel of how the process works along with learning who is a good reputable seller/buyer and who is not.

Once you feel as if you know the process, risks and how to avoid them, then you can branch out to more private deals with other people.

Paypal is never 100% secure, but you can easily take alot of good measure to make sure the person you do business with will not jip you. I think the above mentioned advice is perfect for someone looking to start in the GS Merchanting bit

[Paradii]

Ask your mom, I mean, it's her card...right?

[radamanthys]

Ask your mom, I mean, it's her card...right?

Hahahaha, ouch.

[Reawing]

For the record, if you use a credit card and do not recieve goods, you have a legal right to refuse payment to your credit card provider for that particular charge. Its called disputing a charge. It is then incumbent upon the credit card issuer to investigate the claim but the most you can ever be responsible for is like $50, at least in the state of NY where I learned my credit law. Basically, if you dispute a charge and it was indeed a fraudulent transaction, you will not be out more than $50.

Also, there is almost no chance (although it happens online occaisionally), that anyone could obtain anymore information than your name and email address from paypal.

As far as escrow services go, it is pretty close to the internet gold standard.

*You aren't guaranteed that you won't get screwed by whomever you are doing business with, but you are guaranteed that you will not be responsible for the bulk of the loss if indeed the second party cheated you. Both paypal and your credit card issuer would investigate, and potentially charge someone with fraud or theft. VERY IMPORTANT---If you can avoid it, don't use your bank account. You are almost guaranteed a favorable outcome even in a worst case scenerio when using a credit card.*

-Reawing

[Asrial]

For the record, if you use a credit card and do not recieve goods, you have a legal right to refuse payment to your credit card provider for that particular charge.

Also, there is almost no chance (although it happens online occaisionally), that anyone could obtain anymore information than your name and email address from paypal.However, can items in GemStone be considered tradeable goods given that Simutronics legally owns it all (lines of code)?

..and you're forgetting one important area of PayPal.. the employees.

I used to work for an online eCommerce company and I had access to thousands of legitimate and uncensored credit card numbers. We were the middle man between websites selling something and the banks.

Even if something is encrypted locally.. the people who put it together are still going to be able to decipher the information coming in.

[Bobmuhthol]

I am almost positive that Paypal would use some sort of information control on the basis that no one has murdered the CEO of eBay yet, so I wouldn't worry about employees stealing identities. If the company you worked for was public and you had access to that kind of information, I no longer have faith in humanity.

As far as Simu's code not being a tradeable good, it doesn't have to be. You are paying for a promise when you buy GS items and it is just as enforceable a contract as any (unless Simu has explicitly declared that selling shit is wrong, which they might on paper but definitely do not in practice).

[Asrial]

I am almost positive that Paypal would use some sort of information control on the basis that no one has murdered the CEO of eBay yet, so I wouldn't worry about employees stealing identities.If by information control you mean specialized code.. at some point in the system, there will be an uncensored credit card number floating around and someone, somewhere, will have access to that location. You rely completely on their integrity (or maybe that the person who designed the system got put somewhere else before it went live and no one has access to it now, heh).

If you want to take it a step further (away from the topic of PayPal).. let's examine the employees of your bank and the access THEY have to your personal information.

As to losing faith in humanity.. why? In my company there were a handful of people that knew the location, and how to access, the credit card numbers and I was probably the most dangerous threat given that I was the freshly hired person and not one of the founders that had built the company. My personal integrity and understanding of the consequences ensured that I used that power responsibly.

..and yes..

Simutronics has, on a number of occasions, openly stated their stance of anti-RL sales. They just, like you said, don't do anything about it these days. I wouldn't want to involve them in a dispute though, I can't imagine them saying it's okay and ruling in the favor of the person who lost out on the deal.

[Bobmuhthol]

There are a number of ways to encrypt data in such a way that no one person (without the cooperation of everyone else involved, obviously) could access all of it. Not employing those methods would be suicide.

Then again, TJX et al. fuck things like that up constantly, so who knows.

[Sean of the Thread]

I seriously think that is really Warclaidhm now.

[Sam]

Even if PayPal employees can see your credit card number, it's still probably more secure than giving an Olive Garden waitress your credit card.

[Methais]

I've been thinking of using a paypal account to buy some stuff from some of you here on this board. But I was wondering if someone could tell me if paypal is 100% secure or not? In other words, what are the different ways that someone can screw you over using paypal? Has anyone had an experience like that before?

Also...could someone tell me how a paypal account works? Do I need to open up a bank account? Could I have paypal put money directly into a debit card for me? Or could I use a pre-payed debit card with pay pal? Anyone know?

Would really appreciate this information. I just don't want to get conned out of my money. Not a good thing at all.

If you want to be 100% safe, only make deals with Zimzum.

[Sean of the Thread]

Even if PayPal employees can see your credit card number, it's still probably more secure than giving an Olive Garden waitress your credit card.


Word.

I deal with credit card numbers daily as well however we never ask for the security digits on the back. I like that about HSN.

However sometimes dipshits will just say them before you can stop them.