I've Been Robbed!

So today I logged into my PayPal account for the first time in months, and I had trouble logging in.  By trouble, I mean that they asked me to verify like 15 things before I could 'see' my account. At first I was annoyed, but then I became suspicious that I had been roped into an online scam, so I logged out and re-logged back in to make sure I was at the 'right' PayPal site (I had linked there originally from what I was paying for.)  And to my surprise, turns out those were legitimate security measures because I had been scammed just a few days earlier!

There was a partial lock on my account, and upon further inquiry I realized that a transaction for $750 had been completed from my PayPal account and the money had been pulled from my checking account!!  I couldn't figure out what was going on because it said the transaction was "pending an investigation."

Luckily PayPal operates on extended business hours and is on Pacific time, so even though it was early afternoon here I could still get through to them. luckily the guy on the other end of the phone was an intelligent lifeform, because I was trying not to freak out and the conversation could have taken a nasty turn.  He did a great job of calming me down and explaining everything, assured me I would get my money back in two days and helped me secure my account for future.

So apparently someone accessed my account. How, I'm not sure, because I hardly ever use PayPal - haven't used it in months, actually. A few months ago I did use a wireless connection for my email and maybe that's how they got the information, since it maybe wasn't a secure connection.  I don't know. 

What I DO know is that I'm sufficiently ticked off.  People suck. I don't even understand how people come up with these ideas to rip people off.  I consider myself reasonably intelligent, but I don't understand how these idiots figure out how to garner people's information over the internet and actually know how to use that information to get money without landing themselves in jail.  And if they're so smart to actually get away with this stuff, why can't they use those brain cells toward something more productive, like researching cancer or any one of a myriad of life threatening illnesses?

I just don't get it.

So now I get to spend umpteen hours monitoring my credit score, changing passwords, putting alerts on my credit cards... the list goes on and on.  If I ever find out who did this, I have already come up with some creative revenge tactics.  It involves string, testicles, and a tree, in that order!! :)