Can You Get Scammed Via Paypal?

To be honest you can be scammed with any payment source, PayPal is one of the most commonly used for scamming due to the in-personal nature and relatively slow security they offer to those accepting payments.

They might be the most popular median for payments online but that doesn't mean they are the best. It's very easy for people to use stolen credit cards, or even commit "Friendly Fraud" which is basically opening a dispute or doing a charge back on there credit card despite having received the product/service they purchased; essentially trying to get something for nothing.

The best way to protect yourself is to do as much research as possible on the person(s) or business your working with. If it's a transaction between two people with no business involved the best thing you can do is try to get there home address, phone number and etc.

Even requiring a telephone conversation is usually a good way to avoid being scammed as most thieves are notorious for avoiding confrontation. In addition if your looking for a reliable payment source, or have a business that you would like to start taking payments with I would suggest doing a search on some popular merchant accounts.

I have been a business owner for over 5 years and due to problems I've had with PayPal and other third party providers I choose to do business with Prosper Merchant Services (www.prosperms.com works similar to PayPal but you actually have a merchant account through a bank, have much lower fee's, and it's generally more secure and personal than PayPal's system; along with not being targeted for fraud nearly as much.

Good Luck!