back to article Twitter hacker flings poo at PayPal

An angry user hacked into PayPal UK's Twitter account on Tuesday night and changed the e-commerce company's avatar photo to a heap of steaming crap. The hacker also posted several unflattering tweets ridiculing PayPal. The hacker appears to be an angry PayPal customer motivated by a dispute over a frozen PayPal account. The …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    It's omly slander if it's incorrect

    See title

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (some sort of title)

    As much as I find PayPal has been very convenient for online transactions, mostly eBay, for me for the past 9+ years (so much easier than BidPay, Billpoint, cheques, cash, postal orders, international bank/money transfers etc., all of which I've used at some point), I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them - too many horror stories have surfaced over the years where it appears PayPal have simply frozen accounts at the drop of a hat with little or no recourse for the user, often (surprise, surprise) with the user losing lots of money.

    So in summary, I completely understand why someone would hack their twitter account for mischief & revenge.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    To True

    This guy is spot on with his tweets. Paypal freeze accounts, demanding repeated verifications claiming this is European law for money laundering. Hmm how come my bank only feel the need to do this once when the account is set up?

    You'll find PayPal protection is not worth the paper its written on if you buy virtual services from even reputable websites. Terms and Conditions specifically exclude non physical purchases not shipped through snail mail.

    Paypal is only useful for eBay, and these days with eBay fees so high, the the effective double dipping of eBay and PayPal fees I prefer to give the stuff away.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      European law

      They keep hassling me regarding European law too, despite the fact that I live in South America!

      Tux - because Penguins live here too, unlike Europe.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Down

        You might be in South America

        But Paypal is not, and considering that your account is administered by Paypal Sàrl based in Luxembourg, you, by definition, fall under EU regulations for money laundering because you hold an account at a European financial institution.

        Just for the record, Paypal is considered a bank by EU law, as opposed to the US where Paypal is exactly what PayPalSucks.com claims - outside the federal rules and regs for banks.

  4. Code Monkey
    Thumb Up

    Heap of steaming crap

    I like the flies. They're a nice touch.

  5. Rogerborg

    Yup, can't see anything inaccurate in those tweets

    Never, ever, have more than you can afford to lose sitting in a PayPal account. It's like splitting your money red-black at roulette - you win nothing, and eventually it's going to come up green.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Alert

      PayPal can help thenmselves to your funds.

      > Never have more than you can loose sitting in PayPal.

      You need to be even more careful than this since PayPal insist on linking to a Credit Card, and then eventually Direct Debit to your bank account. (I sold some tat on eBay and triggered their "money laundering" thresholds (around £500 quid!!) and had to set up a direct debit to "prove" who I was. PayPal claim its EU Law apparently. Boll*cks.

      Delete the Direct Debit as soon as its set up, and report the Credit Card lost.

      1. dssf

        Or, set up a specific "firewall" debit acct

        JUST for paypal to extract from.

        Supply to the bank holding that debit acct a letter stating EXACTLY why you created it and demand the bank puts a limit on what can be deducted per transaction and to flat out reject any paypal transaction presented for more than what is in the account.

        This should serve as a tripwire to trigger a human intervention so that you are called in minutes to dispute the presented transaction attempt, or so you can replenish the account to a specific level from a non-linked, one-time-transaction input if you don't have time to personally take cash to the bank (ppal cannot deduct from a teller window, right? hehehe)

        Any process that is hacked and exposes your ppal only account would have to either feign being paypal or would have to exploit ppal and look legit. Even so, if you ONLY put in money for a given purchase, and you complete that purchase, and if the bank is not charging exhorbitant fees to keep the account open and does not impose monthly activiy to avoid risk of closure, then maybe you should keep that account, sort of the way people create "throwaway" email accounts, except yours is more of a firewall to protect your lifeline/day-to-day banking account.

        Maybe national security demans force the likes of ppal to force consumers and sellers to prove their identities. If you can satisfy your bank, then ppal should be satisfied. If not, they don't deserve your business if they keep hassling you.

        But, make sure to use a visa-debit type card so it acts as a visa card without actually compelling you to obtain an unnecessary line of credit. If ppal demands you purchase with a CREDIT card but authenticate via a debit card, and it means you have to pay interest or risk your credit rating or exposes your lifeline and savings accounts, then they don't deserve your business.

        I think soon any smart person will create firewall accounts that are not linked to their non-online-consumption accounts. This should curtail reckless automated double-dipping or account crashing activity to a goodly extent.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If it fits

    Please put the steaming pile of crap avatar back, it fits perfectly and reflects the true ethics of PayPal.

    Thank you

  7. James 93
    Boffin

    PayPal = useless

    I remember speaking to a paypal representative who briefly said "ah i see your paypal has been hacked before" i responded "What? When?" after that i was conveniently cut off when i rang back i was told they knew nothing about it by someone else. WTF seriously i wouldnt trust them with anything other than buying small things off ebay and i certainly wouldnt actually rely on them for anything like a core business system.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      (in)security of PayPal

      With online banking I need to know several pieces of user identification (userids/passwords) plus I physically have to have my bank card in my hands so I can insert it into a number generation device.

      Whereas PayPal only wants to know my email address and password.

      Hence why I trust PayPal as far as I could throw them.

  8. Riscyrich
    FAIL

    The horror stoties are endless

    http://www.screw-paypal.com/horror_stories/horror_stories.html

    -nuff said.

    Good friend of mine lost in excess of £500 selling on eBay. Long story short - he sent parcel, UPS delivered, signed for by recipient. Recipient rings up eBay/Paypal says he didn’t get it. UPS did what they were employed to do (deliver parcel / get signature) and hence didn't want to know, PayPal suspend seller account. No way out.

    He proved it was sent, signed for etc sent copies of everything. Nothing more he could have done, PayPal were having non of it. Ended up closing account, opening Sage Pay account and sending a 'Get Fcuk3d' email to PayPal.

    eBay/PayPal usage rules = only ever buy and only ever buy small.

    1. Lunatik
      Flame

      Same here...

      Slightly lower value, but even though the cretin that bought my item had left positive feedback(!) PayPal weren't interested. The guy later admitted in an email to me that he'd got mixed up with two similar transactions, but as he'd gotten his money back by then he 'wasn't bothered' about sorting it out properly. Even with this evidence it was too much trouble for PayPal to sort out, they had made their decision without any referral to the facts, and that was that.

      I never gave them the money they said I owed (this was about 7 years ago, before they got really hooked into your bank account) so I wasn't out of pocket, and they eventually stopped sending me threatening letters, but it sure left a sour taste.

      PayPal = Shysters

  9. Oninoshiko
    Stop

    As bad as paypal is

    I can't help but think that they probably had a legitimate reason for shutting down this person. Just because you have a dispute,doesn't give you the right to steal accounts and deface pages (or twit-streams in this case).

  10. XMAN

    Or twitter has been hacked?

    Might not be phishing/weak password.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Paypal - good for buyers only

    Paypal is hugely convenient and offers a lot of protection for buyers. But sellers get totally screwed over.

    And whether you like it or not, Paypal is forced into certain parts of our lives (ie you must accept Paypal on ebay).

    Once an account has been frozen/suspended/closed and they send you that 'sorry but we can't work with you anymore' email, you're screwed. The only way back from that is if you have some friends high up at Paypal or one of their sister companies. It can be done but it rarely does.

  12. sleepy

    Time for change?

    eBay & Paypal are so expensive, there must now be an opportunity for competition. Personally I'm waiting for bank of Apple.

    I think Paypal's problem is that when there's a dispute they don't want to be involved, so they simply reverse what they've done. i.e. they always unwind the payment, and say "sort it out yourselves".

    On AVforums a popular small ads convention is to require payment as a gift, so the payer can't claim a refund for non-delivery.

  13. Philip Cohen
    Thumb Down

    The facts on PreyPal ...

    eBay: Magento, AliExpress, Skype, Fish, FigCard, GSI Commerce, RedLaser, Where, Milo, Fetch, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Google, Schmoogle, whatever …

    The fact is the rusting old hulk eBay is presently being kept afloat by the clunky PreyPal so it’s good to see these boys recently squabbling and threats to the clunky PreyPal now coming thick and fast. It’s interesting times for all we eBay “haters” (oops, I mean “watchers”). I just hope that someone has remembered to bring the popcorn.

    All anyone needs to know about the clunky PayPal, at:

    http://forums.auctionbytes.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=165263

    What all buyers should know about the criminal activities of eBay, at:

    http://forums.auctionbytes.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=23540

    Is that PayPal’s blood in the water, and are those “sharks”—oops, “banks”—I can see still circling?

    Enron / eBay / PayPal / Donahoe: Dead Men Walking.

  14. Ian Ferguson
    Thumb Up

    Hurray!

    Very appropriate, seeing as I'd rather do business with a steaming pile of crap than PayPal.

  15. T J
    Thumb Up

    Masterpiece

    Its only the web so ultimately who cares. But this is still funny!!!!

  16. John Lodge
    Thumb Down

    Steaming pile of shite is about right

    We use them at our company as a payment processor of last resort and to be frank Paypal are arrogant, inefficient, lying, pompous, anal and not to say useless. They cause us endless pain but we need them as a good traunch of our less well educated customers think they are really good. The sooner they go tits up the happier I will be.

  17. OMGeeek!
    Thumb Up

    MORE

    I'm tired of being continually shafted by mega corporations. There's absolutely no other way to fight, have a voice or beat these lying, stealing, filthy scumbags. These organisations couldn't give a damn about what consumers have to say, they don't care if the service they provide to us sucks - as long as they are getting fatter.

    Nothing pleases me more than witnessing these bastards being publicly humiliated, or better yet disrupted. They may molest and control us IRL, but they are merely vulnerable guests on the Internet, and these organisations will soon begin to realise this.

    They cannot continue to just ignore and persecute consumers because, when they target the wrong people, they will learn the errors of their ways when they are subject to similar embarrassments via the Internet.

  18. Bess

    and again

    Looks like it just happened again... Have screencapped it in case they pull it again :0) bless

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