PayPal has hit back at hackers claiming to have released the online payment gateway's account information to the public.

The hacking group Lulz Security stated that last week they released log-in information for 62,000 private internet accounts, taking in the likes of Facebook, PayPal and Twitter. But a statement on PayPal's blog noted: "These reports are not accurate. We wanted to assure you that our site has not been breached or hacked in any way."

"A group of hackers is claiming they have compromised another, less secure website and have secured the usernames and passwords of a number of accounts from that site. The hackers have released these login credentials to the public and have encouraged criminals to try accessing personal online accounts at a number of companies, including PayPal, with this information. These usernames and passwords are not necessarily associated with us, but if people have used the same login credentials for multiple sites, including PayPal, then their accounts could be accessed by another person," it added.

The company says that its security team became aware of the situation at an early stage and so began monitoring a number of accounts for suspicious activity. "We always safeguard our customers from qualified unauthorised payments sent from their accounts. We regularly monitor for unusual activity on accounts and will work directly with customers if they suspect their accounts have been accessed fraudulently," the statement said.

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