PayPal denies providing payment information to hacker who hijacked $50,000 Twitter username

PayPal today denied the allegations made in the viral story “How I lost my $50,000 Twitter username” by Naoki Hiroshima, saying it immediately investigated the situation and has found it was not at fault. The company said its policies prohibit the discussion of “details related to our customers’ accounts,” but it wants to set the record straight as best as it can.

PayPal is making the following assertions:

• PayPal says it carefully reviewed its records and can confirm that there was a failed attempt made to gain this customer’s information by contacting PayPal.
• PayPal did not divulge any credit card details related to this account.
• PayPal did not divulge any personal or financial information related to this account.
• This individual’s PayPal account was not compromised.

“At PayPal the security of your personal and financial information is our top priority,” the company said. “Our customer service agents are well trained to prevent, social hacking attempts like the ones detailed in this blog post.”

PayPal also said it is reaching out to the affected customer and will offer assistance. It’s unclear that the company will be able to do much for Hiroshima, given that the deed is already done.

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Since PayPal isn’t providing a recording of any phone calls the hacker reportedly made to the company, there is no way to verify if PayPal employees followed the correct protocols. At the same time, the hacker in question could easily not have told Hiroshima the truth about how he or she gained access.

GoDaddy has yet to issue its own statements, but even then it appears this story will remain a “he said, she said” tale. We may never find out exactly what happened.

Update: GoDaddy accepts partial responsibility in social engineering attack of @N’s customer account

See also – PayPal president is fascinated by Bitcoin, says company is ‘thinking about’ including the virtual currency and PayPal and Samsung partner to make it easier to pay and get paid for apps, games, music, movies, and more

Top Image Credit: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images