Henny -
I have my PayPal account linked to my checking account and after many transactions over the past 7-8 years have never had a problem.
The advice given by nnbreeder is good advice. If PayPal wants to contact you, they will leave you a message on your account page and send you an email by name. I would log in directly to the PayPal account rather than clicking a link that says it is to PayPal if I am ever contacted by email.
Having my PayPal account linked to my checking acct so that I can pay from it directly is, in my opinion, so much safer than giving my credit card information yet again to someone on line when I am purchasing something.