Stop using the same password for your email and banking

I was helping a buddy last week after his Venmo got hacked, and it turned out the scammer got into his email first because BOTH used the same password. The hacker just needed his email from a data breach, tried the password on his bank, and boom, gone. I deal with security locks at my pest control office, and I see people treating their digital locks the same way, using one key for everything. How many of you actually use a password manager or at least different passwords for critical stuff like email and finance?

2 comments

2 Comments

zara4471mo agoMost Upvoted

Man, it drives me crazy when people do that. One thing nobody brings up is how scammers don't even need your actual password sometimes. They can use the 'forgot password' feature on your bank website, which sends a reset link to your email. So if your email is compromised from a data breach and you reuse that password, they just request a reset and lock you out of everything in minutes. My cousin got hit that way and lost access to his Amazon account too since he used the same email for delivery notifications. Have you ever checked how many of your accounts are linked to that one email address?

robinson.jake1mo ago

Yeah, I was reading about that exact thing the other day. Apparently a lot of people don't realize how many accounts are tied to one email, like their Netflix, their PayPal, even their iCloud. @zara447 is right, if a scammer gets into your email through a reused password from a breach, they can basically walk right into your bank account using the forgot password trick. I actually use a password manager now just to keep my email password unique from everything else.