I just cancelled my paypal account because someone got into my account and tried to transfer a considerable amount of money out of my checking account and into my paypal account. Then they tried to access that money and withdraw it from the paypal account. Additionally, someone used my credit card information to purchase a Dell notebook computer.

When I spoke to paypal, I got some guy who was probably working for minimum wage and who couldn't understand my situation. I ended up speaking to countless people there and called many times, each time having to re-explain myself even though I had been assured the matter had been taken care of.

The clincher for me was that while I had informed paypal that this activity was fraudulent and that I didn't want these transactions to go through, they still allowed the checking transfer to proceed. It was only because I had changed my checking account information that the bank, not paypal, terminated the transfer.

I am sure many people have been satisfied with paypal, but my experience has been horrible to say the least. Make sure that you do not directly answer any e-mails that supposedly are from paypal. I never did, but I did report them to paypal as a spoof. There are shysters out there who send fake paypal messages in order to get your account information under the ruse of "information update". Caveat emptor applies here.