PayPal™ is a payment/fund processing service. The Friends has established an account with PayPal for the purpose of being able to accept electronic payment for memberships or donations via our website. When you use the PayPal service to make a payment, PayPal processes your payment information, whether by credit/debit card or by using your own established PayPal account. With a PayPal account, you can have money deducted electronically from your checking account as well, to pay for online merchandise or services. Some merchants will only accept pre-payment or electonic fund transfers using a service like PayPal, and you will be given the option of creating an account when you use the PayPal service.

When using PayPal to make an online payment through our website, we are only provided with your contact/shipping information in order to record your memerbship or acknowledge a donation. We do not have access to any of your financial information.

Please be aware of potential scam or phishing emails that you may receive. Even if you have never used PayPal you may still get, or may have received, emails claiming to be from PayPal, requesting you verify or update your personal information. This is a common "phishing" scam type solicitation and you may have received similar solicitations claiming to be from most any financial institution. Please be advised that no legitimate financial institution will ever send you an email asking for verification of your personal/financial information, especially emails that have a link that you are asked to click, to supposedly be directed to your account where you can update personal information. You should never click on any links such as these. The only way to properly access accounts you have with any financial service is to open their web page and log in to your account.

For more information on phishing emails and how to report to PayPal, please visit their website at www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-spot-and-report-a-fake,-fraudulent,-or-phishing-paypal-email-or-website-faq438