There are always inherent risk with using the internet for commerce.
There is an inherent risk in using a credit card for a payment and
there is an inherent risk of using a check. However, with the trend
toward that end and with the new federal law associated with payment of
federal contracts there is a significant effort to minimize these risk
and provide more security for the electronic movement of funds. As of
Oct 1 2003, contractors for the US department of defense get paid via.
electronic funds transfer (which has risk involved) directly into you
account not by paper checks.
While you are signed on the internet a hacker can get any information
you have stored in your computer - username and password to any site.
The windows operating system is the most vulnerable OS out there. They
can then go to the site, e.g. amazon.com and check our your history and
download other information. They can hack into a banks files and get
all the credit card numbers and information for the bank and use those
numbers - that's actually been done. A hacker can install in you
computer a background program to capture and report back on you
keystrokes. So while you are buying something online, the link between
you and the merchant is encrypted and secure, but the hacker knows what
you are sending and you credit card information can be derived from
that. This is a particular problem with windows and this is why things
like firewalls are important and virus checkers are importnat.
In the mid 1990, a hacker broke into the payroll computer network in
the Pentagon and was trying to move funds around. He was initially
sucessful, but was caught.
Printed on your checks is the complete routing information to your bank
and your account in that bank. A smart hacker could take the number
from the bottom of your check and generate an electronic funds transfer
out of your account. As has been demonstrated in the past not all bank
security systems are fool proof and the above has happened.
While there are inherent risk with any movement of funds by electronic
means, I suspect the risk with PayPal are no greater than having a bank
card with Chase and a lot less risk than having your credit card number
stored in your windows computer.
Ten years algo there were significant risk. Today with the newer
technology the risk is much lower. However, nothing is totally risk
free including paying by check.
Truman
David LeBlanc wrote:
Teri said:
SERA (Southeastern Endurance Riders Association) has added
new items to their site. You can now join or renew online
your SERA membership. PayPal only. You can even open an
account if you don't have one. It's easy.
I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but there has been a lot of fraud
associated with PayPal. There's only a username and password between the bad
guys and your money. The username is your e-mail address, which is freely
available all over the place, so all that protects you is the password.
Searching Google on PayPal and fraud brings up a lot of interesting sites
with many tales of woe.
Personally, I'd much rather put a check in the mail than ever use PayPal. If
someone felt like they really wanted to use PayPal the best way to do it is
to link it with an account that is only used for PayPal, only contains as
much money as you're willing to lose, and you put money in it when it needs
to be there.
Here's what http://paypalsuit.com/Phone.htm has to say:
"We strongly recommend that people keep their PayPal balance as low as
possible. Remove funds immediately. Also, use a second banking account for
Paypal and as soon as those funds are in there, move it to your main
account."
These folks certainly have an axe to grind, but it seems like sound advice
to limit your risk.
My job is software security and some of the things I've seen and heard about
would make your hair stand on end, but even so, I do use credit cards over
the Internet fairly often - there's safeguards in place for those. I won't
use PayPal.
I'm sure you worked hard to set this up, and I do apologize for raining on
your parade, but if I still lived in the SE, I'd pay you any other way than
that. If some of you out there are happy with PayPal, I hope you continue to
have good luck.
