Just Whose Pal Is PayPal?

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/internetfraud/story/0,23008,3370214,00.html">http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/internetfraud/story/0,23008,3370214,00.html</a><br /><br />There was a flurry of discussion on PayPal about two weeks ago as a side-note to the app being reviewed at the time, <a href="http://www.dex-plor.com/dexplor.php">DEXplor</a> - which I purchased last week. Great app!<br /><br />Anyway, the Pocket PC Thoughts hard drive with that thread has assumed room temperature, so the discussion is lost. I thought those that recalled it would be interested in the article at TechTV's Cyber Crime show. It has already aired once this week but I wasn't able to watch it. I am going to try and catch it this weekend though. There is a link to repeat times for this segment at the bottom of the link I provided.<br /><br />Personally, I keep a PayPal account for small eBay purchases and shareware apps, but that is it.

[James]

One of the downsides of great technology are the people that come along with it seeking to exploit it to harm others. I also think the laws tend to help the criminals more than the protect people.

[kurzon]

Paypal is only good for small purchases. If you make any large purchases, do find a more secure means. You're only asking for Christ's Second Coming if you expect Paypal to come to your rescue when something goes wrong.

[thebrix]

I note Mastercard/VISA being accepted for purchases right down to USD4 or USD5 now - in fact, I just bought Stellarmetrics' Go! for USD5 with no problems.

Although DEX-Plor is an excellent package I think having to use PayPal to pay for it is counter-productive - the hoops International PayPal users have to jump through (multiple passwords and confirmation) must put a lot of people off. I admit I thought "when will this bombardment of emails stop from PayPal?" and nearly did give up halfway through buying it.

[spg]

I haven't ever had any problems with PayPal. I think alot of it is the way people use it. Like in the TechTV article the guy paid 2,000 dollars to some nobody expecting to get a computer. I would say if you are going to make a large purchase like that, use some other means. I have used paypal to accept payments for my PPC 2002 themes, never had a problem.

[I]~Spencer 8)

[questionlp]

I guess my experience with PayPal is like many others... as a buyer or a donation giver, I haven't run into any problems with PayPal. The purchases that I make through PayPal are small (from $10-50) since I don't want a whole lot to come out of my bank account ;-)

On the otherhand, I have heard that those who receive money via PayPal have had problems (ranging from small quirks to insane fees). One of the vendors that I recently made a purchase through (using PayPal) resides in Australia... the problem they have is the high conversion fees and other fees related to the transaction, plus the silly minimum limit to withdraw money (it's a problem for them since the items aren't very expensive).

Just wanted to post my experiences with PayPal and some of problems that I have heard.