Warning if you use Paypal as your Merchant Acct

I have been using Paypal as my merchant account on may website to enable purchases using credit cards, etc. Someone was able to access my account, and instead of paying me, they were able to reverse the transaction and suck $1400 from my checking account.

To their credit, Paypal Fraud Department was on top of it and contacted me. The $1400 still came out of my account, but it was returned to my paypal account and transfered back into my checking, so I didn't lose any money. The transaction was stopped before this scumbag actually got the money.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but it was meant to look like a transaction by Ryan DesJardins Photography.

I had to change a bunch of stuff with Paypal to re-secure my account, and I'm going to make changes to my web site. The sales I've made from people seeing my stuff online has always taken place off line, so I doubt I'm going to keep the online purchasing option on the website. If someone needs to use a credit card I can send them an electronic invoice.

I was happy with their fraud department. I would have been clueless until I saw the money sucked from my account.

I know there are at least a couple guys who have paypal as their merchant acount, so I wanted to share.