Preventing PayPal scam is crucial in this error where there is too much malicious activity being done to fulfil financial gains. One of the most famous scams is the PayPal scam; this is a service commonly used in the world and has been there for quite a long time so scammers take advantage of its dominance to steal people of their money; a reason you must be aware of tips for preventing PayPal scam.

In the past three months I have come across phishing emails in relation to PayPal account. The first one happened in August 2024, where I got a notification to reset my password and another one week ago. The most recent is the craziest, I was sent an attachment which apparently was an invoice of a payment I had actually never made and the email had a link, I will share a screen shot below.

These are all methods hackers use to steal your money from your credit cards linked to your PayPal account or even from the PayPal credit balance.

What are some of the tips for preventing PayPal Scam? What must you do to protect your PayPal account from compromised.

Tip 1: Ensure that you have strong login credentials

With this I mean have a very strong password for your PayPal account. Your password must be Unique, Random and Long. Ideally your password should not be the same that of other accounts so that when one account password is guessed, it doesn’t lead to a malicious PayPal login. The email account that you use must also have strong security measures put in place like a two factor authentication, strong password, no third party accounts connected. The links below will guide you on how to secure your email and provide you with further tips for password management

Tip 2: Only connect your Credit Card to PayPal when you want to make a transaction using PayPal.

This will secure your bank account as well, so that by the time there is a compromise, there is no account to initiate automatic transaction

Tip 3: Pay attention to security alerts

You must be observant on suspicious login alerts, suspicious requests to change your login credentials. This will help you initiate immediate action to secure your account

Tip 4: Set up accounts from banks that have strong security policies

Some banks do not have authentication policies. It is important to have an account in a bank that uses a multifactor authentication, so that when there is a malicious transaction being initiated, there is a code required

Tip 5: Adopt strong PayPal account security measures.

PayPal is a financial company that offers you options to secure your account. Make use of the security settings

Tip 6: Be aware of phishing links

. If you receive a suspicious PayPal link, don’t click on it as this may lead you to handing in your credentials blindly. Be aware of attachments sent with the malicious email as this may lead to a ransomware automatically being installed in your computer and files getting encrypted. Scammers usually demand for a ransom by asking you initiate a PayPal transaction before they decrypt files

You can also learn more about overcoming phishing by reading previously written articles on phishing in this blog. I have shared some past links below that will be helpful in guiding you on your fight against phishing. You will get to discover what exactly phishing is, the different types and how it can be overcome

After reading the above articles about phishing, I kindly advise you to take a phishing test. There are two commonly known effective phishing tests that will help you discover if you are surely knowledgeable about phishing; That is the Jigsaw Phishing Test and the one for Shira

Taking these tests below is part of the tips for preventing PayPal scam.

What more you should know on tips for preventing PayPal Scam

Majority of scammers use PayPal to carry out malicious transactions. They take advantage of the service because it just requires an email and a password to login. The service is also easier to use which makes it very easy for hackers to take advantage of it; a reason you must take precaution. More over PayPal is a service that is easy to incorporate on fake login pages as there are a lot of plugins nowadays that offer PayPal Integration. Above all, the hacker may not actually need the plugin, PayPal can easily be integrated using