Tech Byte: How to avoid PayPal scams

These days, most of us pay our bills and do some of our shopping online. PayPal a convenient way to make those purchases. Unfortunately, its convenient for criminals too. Let’s look at how you can stay away from scams and keep your money safe.

Many of these scams happen over e-mail. According to VPNOverview, this a scammer’s preferred method of stealing your money. There are several red flags that pop up in this type of scam. The message might say there’s a problem with your account, give you a promotional offer. Another fake email might claim that you’ve won a lot of money. However, to get to it, you’ll need to send a small sum through PayPal to cover transaction fees. It could even say that there’s been suspicious activity on your PayPal account and ask you to call a phone number that connects you to a scam call center. Other scams include alternate payment methods, pending payments, fake charities, and even shipping addresses.

So, how do you know what’s legit? VPNOverview says only contact PayPal using the number listed on its website. Any official PayPal communications will always address you by name. Other advice? Remember to never send money outside of PayPal if you’ve conducted a transaction on the website. It also never hurts to get good antivirus software on your computer. VPNOverview recommends Norton.