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Makeuseof.com has a great article on their site about what you can do to help prevent your PayPal account from being hacked, but these tips could apply to pretty much any online account. Here’s summery of what they suggest:

  1. Don’t click a link inside an email - Phishing scams to gain access to PayPal accounts are very common. If you receive an email that says it’s from PayPal and asks you to click on a link and then enter your login and password, don’t do it. To learn more about phishing scams click here
  2. Create strong passwords for both your PayPal account and your email - Just having a strong password to your PayPal account may not be enough. If a scammer gets into your email they can then go to the website, request a password reset, and then retrieve the new password from your email. To learn more about how to improve your password security click here.
  3. When using a computer you don’t completely trust, keep your personal information safe with portable applications – If you are unsure about a computer you are going to be using, e.g. a public computer, then you can use a portable internet browser such as Firefox portable on a USB stick. This way all your log files, browsing history, and saved passwords will be stored on you USB not on the computer.
    If you are worried that the computer you are using may have keylogging software (malware that attempts to record your keystrokes) then you could use a portable on-screen keyboard like this one for entering your passwords. Although if you seriously suspect a computer has any kind of malware you shouldn’t use it for sites like PayPal.

To read more about how to protect your PayPal account from hackers click here.