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Comment by robotcookies | Hacker News Reader

I closed my paypal account after reading this. The gist is that the author had his account compromised and after warning paypal about this, had it compromised immediately again. It turned out you don't even need a password to get into accounts.

There's no excuse for a multi billion $ company to be this lax on security today.

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That seems excessive. Do you have any enemies you're particularly worried about attacking you? If not, then this is important but not THAT imminent of a threat to you.

I closed it more as an incentive for them to improve their security than because I feel I'm at risk. I think customers should do this more often otherwise companies are slow to address these issues. And if it were too difficult for me to close my account I'd know I am too dependent on them.

What data do you have on your PayPal account that you're so worried about?

I think he sufficiently justified his actions. He is just 'voting with his dollars'. I agree with him, in principle.

I feel like it would be more effective to keep the account open and badger them every day about the issue. Worst case: they close his account (which he's already willing to do). Best case: they fix the problem :)

You don't have to have enemies. Criminals don't care where the money comes from.

Moreover, lots of people dropping PayPal gives a strong signal that PayPal is not a suitable payment provider. It makes room for a payment provider that does this better and discourages others from feeling forced into the PayPal trap.

(For the record: I closed my PayPal account many years ago, because of abundant evidence of PayPal's unreliability.)

That's not even what happened, his account was only compromised once, he must've messed up something himself.

I've listened to the calls made to PayPal by the attackers.

Where'd you find those calls?

Skype.

This is somewhat relevant: https://i.imgur.com/Q6j2Jmp.png

(inb4 yet another Krebs article complaining about me)

In the fourth paragraph that starts "Twenty minutes later..." he specifically states that his account email and password were changed on his account a second time. This is after calling in to paypal to fix the first hack.

https://i.imgur.com/Q6j2Jmp.png

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