Scuttled by SKYPE !!!!

I am looking for a good VOIP service other than SKYPE or Voipwise - I call UK - Ireland and USA/Canada most of the time.

My Skype Account was 'hyjacked' 8th/9th June. I could not get in to it. On 9th June when I got my Skype account back there were no contacts in my 'Contacts' list - this was sorted later and Skype  retrieved them, but I then noticed that many  contact details, that I had on my list for over a year were missing. I found them in the 'blocked' file! There was a mysterious email address, unknown to me in my Profile contact detaills.  I got access again on 10th June - nearly $50 credit had been used as the 'hy-jacker' hacked with 36 attempts (recorded on my SKYPE Account) in to my PayPal and got my password!! This did not cause SKYPE  or PayPal to be allerted or to contact me! Many of the phone numbers I have on my 'Contact' list would be private and un-listed - there has been a serious breach of security when someone can hack in and take over my Skype account and take these numbers and private details of my family, friends and business colleagues, never mind hack in to my PayPal account and use my money!!!!!

  On 12th June SKYPE woke up and 'blocked' my account  - evidently there had been a breach of security!! It was blocked for TWO weeks. During this time I sent about 4 emails every day (close to 100 in total),  recording what has happened. Iwent to the SKYPE site and went thru the tedious process of lodging my dis-satisfaction thru their Support (Support??? Ha Ha!!  That's a joke). I have received about 12 emails in total - sometimes just from 'SKYPE Support' and about 5 or 6 with a 'name' at the bottom from 'SKYPE Support'. ALL of these emails were 'automated. NONE of the emails referred to what had happened to me but did refer to 'a breach in security'. NONE explained what had happened, who the mysterious email belonged to. To cap it all, about a week after I got the account back, I changed my Profile, my email address and my password..... removed the automatic top-up. I had $13.74 credit and overnight that was used and a $25.00 credit replaced it! Again I wrote to ask what was going on?

  Today 25th August, and no one from SKYPE has explained to me how this happened and under these circumstances I have to seriously consider not using Skype any more or recommending it to thousands of people thru my web site and word of mouth as I have been doing for the past 8 years up to now. It seems like Skype and its associates are not really bothered about my complaint - with millions of users.  I think that they have got too big and cannot provide the secure service that they used to.

I keep SKYPE 'closed' and only open it when I need to make a call. I will remove it from my computer when my credit is used up. I am writing this to warn other SKYPE users what might happen to them and to beware!