I had this happen to me last week.

I'd foolishly used the same email/password combination on my Telus account when my information was compromised in a Facebook leak a long time ago, and have neglected to change it since because I rarely have any reason to log into Telus. So one night last week, a hacker was able to get into my Telus account, cancel my service and transfer my number to a new carrier and was then able to assume control of my email.

I was fortunate enough to look at my phone about an hour after this happened where I saw a string of texts from Telus, Microsoft and Google all telling me that this was happening, and was even more fortunate in that I got back into my email and succeeded in locking them out before they could get around to doing much damage. I had to wait all night for Telus' customer service to open in order to contact them and get my number transferred back, but now it's been more than a week and it doesn't appear that they got anything more than a few emails.

Ultimately I seem to have gotten off really easy, but I certainly learned my lesson about taking internet security seriously. I've been totally paranoid about it ever since.

I'm sorry this happened to you. Telus was very understanding and helpful when I contacted them to get my number back, but I can't even imagine if I had been forced to go through paypal and the bank and all of that as well. Good luck with getting all of this sorted out!