My brother told me to stop using the same password for everything - he was right but I didn't listen until I got locked out

My older brother has been bugging me for years about using 'dog1234' for every account I have, from email to my dog grooming supply orders. Last Tuesday I woke up to find someone had used my card to buy $340 worth of gift cards from some scam site, all because I never turned on two-factor authentication either. I spent like 6 hours on the phone with my bank and had to close my personal checking account. Has anyone else had a relative give them good advice they ignored until something bad happened?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamieb8011d ago

That part about the 6 hours on the phone really hits home... I spent almost that long after my mom warned me I was too trusting with sharing my login info, and then I got locked out of my own bank account for a whole weekend.

the_sam11d ago

Yeah it's wild how trusting people are with passwords these days like giving out keys to your whole digital life.

king.val11d ago

@jamieb80 I used to be the type who rolled my eyes at people who freaked out about sharing passwords. Like, come on, it's 2024, get over it. Then my sister borrowed my Netflix login and suddenly my email started getting password reset codes for everything. Took me a full day to lock everything down and another to convince the bank I wasn't hacked. Now I'm the one reminding people to treat login codes like house keys.