I still am not quite sure how this happened.
Last week my husband sent me a really nice email (not being sarcastic here…it was nice) saying that he didn’t care if I did but did I by any chance charge $40 to our PayPal account for some internet game called Minespawn or something about Mines. Given that I have been known to charge our Paypay account on occasion for FarmVille, Baking Life, etc. it was not an unreasonable question. Of course I don’t think I’ve ever spent $40 in one go…
The trouble is that I haven’t done anything with PayPal in six months or so; the minute I saw the charges were through there instead of the App Store I felt a gallon of hot lead pouring into my gut.
Because it isn’t just the $40 going missing. It isn’t just that those $40 are going to Mojang AB to to pay for credits on Minecraft–whatever that is–instead of someplace decent like Heifer Intl. It’s that some asscheddar somewhere on this planet figured out a way to get money that belonged to my family instead of him. And that asscheddar isn’t doing something quasi-noble and Jean Valjeanesque like using the $40 to feed himself or his family. In this time of Occupy Wall Street when we’re all aware of the folks out of work and hungry and what not I could maybe understand if the charge came through for something like Honeybaked Ham or Omaha Steaks. But MINECRAFT? Look, I play games too. And I don’t mind spending money on them in micropayments because for a lot of years my family lived on micropayments for streaming services. Every time I throw $5 at an app like that I picture myself helping some family working for a startup pay their mortgage. Back when we struggled I used to find myself wondering why more people wouldn’t part with the $3.99 subscription payment to our service. If they would’ve just done that it would’ve saved us a lot of grief. So, anyway, I don’t think that spending discretionary income on games is necessarily any worse than spending it on books or movies or any other leisure thing.
But someone stole from us. And not only did they take our money, but they also took our identity. They lied and pretended to be us so that they could have $40 for a game.
I’ve done everything I think I can do at this point. I changed the password and delinked PayPal from Facebook. I disputed the charges with PayPal. They are now “awaiting other party’s response”. What worries me is that the Other Party (i.e. Mojang AB dba Minecraft) says they _never_ do refunds, ever. And obviously the assgouda calling himself tcobles3sdf is using that cash to play away on Minecraft. So I’m sure that Mojang AB is just going to be all “sucks for you, we’ve got our money” and let it go.
It could be worse. It could be a larger amount. It could have been spent on drugs or porn. But the combination of waste and vulnerability has me completely irate. I have never before so deeply empathised with Eric Cartman; I can only picture tcoble3sdf as Scott Tenorman, and I can completely picture myself stewing his parents in a chili.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
When our PP account got hacked, our checking account got hit for $1500. It was someone in Europe making a video-game related purchase. Patrick can fill you in on the details. Adam was very small, and so I’ve blocked most of that time out. 😉
This was in Europe too. I wonder what they’re doing over there.
I hope it got resolved…
I definitely get the “violated” feeling can be worse than the actual consequences of the act. That was what took me by surprise when my Obama/Biden sign was stolen from my yard during the last election. It really upset me and it took me a bit to figure out why exactly. Because I truly couldn’t have cared less about the sign itself, and crap like stealing campaign signs is hardly unheard of political campaigns, but I realized it was because somebody came on my property, without my permission, and took something that belonged to me. It’s very disempowering.
Hope you get your money back and more importantly, that the measures you’ve now taken prevent any future situations.
This reminds me of (I don’t know why) that time when some dude stole my super new flashy bike for which I saved for months. The police caught him a couple of months later and during the trial he admitted he traded it for a bottle of vodka. A BOTTLE OF VODKA! My fine expensive bike went for a bottle of vodka. I think that was the final insult.
“Made you eat your paaaarents!” — OK that is one of my favorite, yet one of the most disturbing, South Park episodes.
My PayPal account got hacked a few years back and I still have no idea how, unless one of the sites I used it on to make a transaction somehow figured out a way in, but I thought PayPal was set up so that’s not possible. Or at least is very difficult.
The person used the account to buy $35 worth of mp3 downloads from emusic.com, and I remember thinking “God, of all the places to buy music, they use a shitty site like *emusic.com?!* What morons.” But anyway, my bank at the time (SunTrust) ended up refunding me the money.
I think now, though, doesn’t PayPal have some kind of safety guarantee?
Here’s our story – it started with ebay: http://blog.patrickandlydia.com/2008/03/my-ebay-account-was-stolen.html
Hey there people,
my Paypal account is been hacked as well…
20€, two times in a few minutes so 40€ to Mojang AB, I think that they are the producers of the game Minecraft.
Is not a very large amount of money, but 40€ is almost a half day of work for me. I really can’t stand this people that they want a game so bad that they steal money from other people just to buy that game.
How about going to work and make your own money?
Good thing that I dealt with my PP account right away: disputing the 2 charges, changing the password, taking off my credit card infos and blocking it. Tomorrow I’ll go to the local police to fix this, and I hope to receive a refund from paypal.
Next time I need to purchase something with paypal, I guess I’ll have to input my credit card infos, purchase the item, and then delete the infos again…
Sounds like someone has a new trick. BTW, Paypal _did_ refund our money 11 days later.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
Good to hear. This just happened to me today as well. I’ve changed my passwords for every account I could think of, and have disputed the charges. I too was dinged 2 x for 19.95 Euro.
I to had my PP account hacked today for €19.95 from minecraft 😦
Looks like this is pretty common
I just looked at my PayPal account today and I also have been ripped off for 19.95 euro. The transaction was done yesterday 3/6/2012. I have filed a complaint with PayPal. We’ll see what happens. After this is resolved, I am closing my PayPal account.
BTW – it was also paid to Mojang AB.