I received an e-mail from PayPal the other day that my account was going to be suspended because of too many unsuccessful attempts to log in.  It gave me a link to click to log in and up-date my password.  I decided the best thing to do would be to log into PayPal separately.  I didn't trust the e-mail.  I wonder why, since I have not been able to find it again.

However, I did change my password and my security questions for further security.  I really wonder what my strange e-mails had from the oceanographer had to do with this.  All I know is that I feel safer now that my account cannot be compromised easily.

There has been a lot in the media recently about internet security and it cannot be taken lightly, even if you have a series of passwords that you use for the various places you need to log into.  For simplicity sake, it is so easy to just use a series of passwords over and over again, but it doesn't take much.  My daughter recently had herself locked out of her Google e-mail account in an attempt to get her passwords.  Thankfully, she is pretty determined and was able to wrestle control back after a couple of attempts by the other party and protect everything but I suspect that this was an attempt at PayPal as well.

The other scam I realized I was hit with was a phone call from someone, I don't even remember who it was or where they were calling from even though I asked again after they identified themselves.  The service they were offering was to be given access to my computer and they would go in and see if there was anything wrong with my computer and fix it.  I was stunned, and asked more than once:  "You really want me to give you access to my computer".  They were deadly serious.  I found out later that this was a scam.  They would be given access and go in and crash the computer and then you had to pay them to fix it.  Needless to say, I didn't give them access to my computer and only found out later it was a scam.

Both of my two experiences really showed me how good these people can be.  Both the phone call and the e-mail were deadly serious and had a very good and believable story.  I just am so skeptical that I don't believe much that people say and so didn't get caught.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or not but I think it saved me in both instances.

I can't stress the importance of having a secure password for your PayPal account or account for any site you buy from or sell from.  Change the password regularly and your security questions as well.  I am lucky to have a Blackberry with a password keeper in it so that I can store the password there or I wouldn't remember them most of the time; and that is the big problem with changing your passwords and security questions, remembering the passwords or answers.  Finding a secure place to put them is difficult, and as my daughter had her e-mail compromised, that is not a good place.

Happy and Safe Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz