Update to my dad’s PayPal being hacked and sending me $3500

The other day I posted about my dad’s PayPal being hacked and the hackers sending me $3500 and my cousin $1500.

Here’s how they gained access:

He says that he opened an email that looked like it was from the SSA to view his benefits. He started collecting his retirement benefits a month ago. In the email was an attachment he opened. Nothing happened, and when he went back to look at the email, it said “dear sir or madam” so he realized it was not from the SSA. He ran a virus scan which did not find anything so he assumed he was in the clear and went to sleep.

He woke up the next morning to the emails from PayPal transferring money to me. He went to his computer to change his password when he noticed the cursor moving by itself. He immediately realized that someone had remote access, so he shut his computer off and unplugged it.

Obviously, they accessed his PayPal via his computer.

I’m assuming their plan was to use his Facebook Messenger to convince me to send them the money via crypto or whatever but they were thwarted when he turned off his computer.

He now has 2-factor authentication on his PayPal.