Paypal

I haven't had any safety issues with it and I've been using it for about three years now. As long as you are careful with your information and careful in choosing your password you should be fine.

Paypal is owned an operated by eBay.  Paypal is a bank in it's own right since they do loans and offer credit cards.  The web site uses encryption that deters hackers and they continuously monitor and update their security to keep the accounts safe.

Keep in mind that no web site is totally 100% safe.  There is no way they can be and still be connected to the Internet.

They have had security breaches and they no doubt will have more.  Part of being safe is doing your part to contribute to the safety of the site by using safe browsing practices.

Let me say that I use PayPal and I have never had an issue.  I feel relatively secure in using it and in many cases it's my preferred means of payment to online retailers.

More info is available here: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/PayPal

For even more details, reviews, flaws, breaches, etc go to www.google.com and search on "paypal security"

The following was taken from the PayPal web site:

Question - How secure is the PayPal site?   Answer - The PayPal site is highly secure. We use industry-leading technology (such as SSL) to keep your information safe.

PayPal automatically encrypts your confidential information in transit from your computer to ours using the Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) with an encryption key length of 128-bits (the highest level commercially available). Before you even register or log in to the PayPal site, our server checks that you're using an approved browser - one that uses SSL 3.0 or higher.

Once your information reaches the PayPal site, it resides on a server that is heavily guarded both physically and electronically. PayPal servers sit behind an electronic firewall and are not directly connected to the internet, so your private information is available only to authorized computers.

What Makes the PayPal Site So Secure?

• Technology
  Our state-of-the-art fraud models and proprietary fraud engine work together to help stop fraudulent transactions before they happen. In addition, PayPal stays at the forefront of security, developing many anti-fraud technologies every year.
  
  
• Experience
  With PayPal, you've got the industry's most experienced fraud team on your side. PayPal processes billions of dollars in payments each year, allowing us to continually perfect our anti-fraud protections. As a result, PayPal's loss rate is significantly lower than the industry average. We also work with federal law enforcement to catch criminals.
  
  
• Privacy
  PayPal is committed to protecting the privacy of our users. When you send or request money using PayPal, recipients never see your bank account numbers or credit card numbers. They only see your email address, date of sign-up, and whether or not you have completed PayPal's Verification process.

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Licenses & Certifications: Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, Novell, FCC RF & Amateur Radio licensed.

In short: it's quite a bit more secure than it used to be, and at this point is as safe if not safer than most other online payment transactors. Even CitiGroup was hacked last week; there's always some degree of risk, but there's more risk in giving your credit card to the waitress at the restaurant than there is using PayPal.