PayPal account potentially hacked

[TheGander]

I have received several texts from PayPal ( genuine, I rang them to check) asking whether various attempts at payment were from me. They weren’t. They asked if my husband had used my telephone no as a back up no but he hasn’t. They advised me to contact my telephone provider to check no one else out there has my tel no, which they denied. I have changed my PayPal password. I can’t understand what is going on but I’m thinking of deleting my PayPal account, I can’t take the risk of being hacked. It’s linked to the bank account my salary gets paid into. Has anyone experienced similar? Any advice on best course of action? TIA.

Were these text messages that you received for authorisation codes or to approve payments?

I've had a strange email from PayPal this week claiming to be confirmation of a payment being made.
I then recieved a second email from someone in NZ asking me if I was confirming a booking (via PayPal).
But it's going to an email address not actually linked to my PayPal, so I'm ignoring it.

Always contact your bank if you have any concerns over payments being made that you aren't making. They can look into any activities and will tell you if anything isn't right. You are correct to change your password, but please make sure it's a strong one (3 random words).

These are the texts I received: PayPal Fraud Alert: Are you trying to pay £20.00 GBP? If yes, reply 1. If no, reply 2. Msg & Data rates apply
And: PayPal: xxxxxxx is your £10.00 GBP transaction code. Don't share it.
In both cases I was not using my PayPal, this was not generated by me.
My bank has suspended all online transactions after I told them about this. But obviously it’s not a long term solution. I’d rather lose PayPal than risk a big loss via fraud.

Definitely changing your password was the right thing to do,that should keep your account safe as it sounds like it may have been compromised so you did everything right by changing the password and speaking to your bank

Have you contacted PayPal itself about what happened?

www.paypal.com/uk/security/report-fraud

Did u ring paypal? As in actually paypal and not paypal from this message?

The wording of that text is different to the genuine PayPal texts I have had sending a code. What number did you use to contact PayPal?

Yes I rang PayPal via the number on the website. I got put through to someone in the Philippines who told me to contact my
mobile phone supplier for an explanation ( they were unable to give me one). Today I tried to ring twice and got cut off both times. This difficulty in speaking to an agent is making me want to close my account.

‘£20.00 GBP’ would have me suspicious.

I think your solution here since they say it’s genuine is just to unlink your bank account from your PayPal. Set up a separate current account to transfer money into for PP transactions?

My messages do have the amounts like that - £xx.xx GBP.

Interesting development, my bank is refusing to reinstate online banking even if o close my PayPal. They want my phone and any associated devices checked over for spyware etc. I’m going to take my iPhone to the Apple Store tomorrow and see what they can do.