Keeping Your Money and Banking Information Safe from Scammers

This story is the third in a series in anticipation of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023.

It was a typical muggy sweatbox of a fall in the city of Houston in late 2017. I’m not much of a sports fan, but I, like everyone else not living under a rock in the greater Houston metropolitan area, knew the Houston Astros had made it to the World Series and were up against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Go ‘Stros!,” and all that.

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As I am not a multi-millionaire, but was at that point an estranged wife financially supporting 4 school-aged children all on my own, I paid very close attention to my bank accounts and almost immediately noticed a pending charge of more than $200 from PayPal for the online auction site, eBay, on my checking account. I knew this wasn’t a forgotten transaction initiated by me because my current card was not linked to either platform as it was a brand new card and number. Initially, it was a bit confusing as eBay purchased PayPal in 2002, so in those cases, it can be difficult to know who exactly to contact. I placed a phone call to PayPal customer support.

The representative I spoke with was very helpful and able to tell me the swindler used my brand spanking new card number to purchase Dodgers merchandise using my money, or at least attempted to until we thwarted…