To be fed up of passwords for everything in life?

[doorbellringer2]

I am so sick of passwords/passcodes for everything in every day life. We are told we should have different, super strong passwords for every single thing.
Want to access your banking, mortgage, pension, insurance, supermarket loyalty scheme, hairdresser booking app, school app, kids club app? Then each of those should have their own unique random password. Something like P2d3&r#K@0 is often the suggested one. How are we supposed to remember each one?
I know my iPhone has a passkey thingy to remember them, but what if my phone gets lost or stolen? Apparently those are the first things they look to target, and if they get in to one of the accounts then they change the verification email addresses and it can lock you out of everything. Apparently it can take months to sort out. It’s so depressing.
This is triggered by recently being abroad and someone tried to hack my Revolut account. I had to block access and transfer my money to another account.
I believe you wouldn’t be covered by insurance if you wrote them down in a notebook and that was discovered by robbers and they could then access your stuff.
Does anyone else miss the simple days when you were not fighting off criminal masterminds daily?

Sounds like just another guantlet thrown down to hackers - I am sure it will be breached at some point, then everything is in one place for them.

Some have recommended LastPass.

This password manager suffered several serious data breaches in 2022.

So, I would be very hesitant in using them.

But that's not the banks fault. Fraudsters are getting cleverer all the time. Could you imagine if banks hadn't gone to online banking, they would have gone busy by now. The whole world is online they had to get on board. If you want to blame anyone blame the criminals who thinks it's ok to steal other people's money.

And as for having to put your phone number down when using a new-to-me shop.. can't NOT put a number down, & then get zillions of scam calls..

I think like that too. Just supposing they were able to hack one of those sites. Surely that would be the golden goose, because a lot of people trust them.
I absolutely refuse to give my email address to shops asking if they can email my receipt to me. Been stung there before and then noticed a lot of new spam emails.
I have a little book in my house with them written down. (I know, I know)
I find the trouble is that sometimes you write down what you think is: the passcode, customer number, banking pin, passcode for the app, direct banking password, security number and password.
Then do a phone update and it logs you out.
Then you cannot enter the right information in the right place, because they call it something different.
I’m looking at you Royal Bank of Scotland.

I try to use “guest checkout” when booking things. Then they blackmail you by saying “ooh, you are missing out by not being a member”

I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s an unnecessary additional stress to everyday life.

I am sure AI will have all the passwords in about a year. I will just resort to keeping gems buried in the garden.

Yes, I do. But that isn’t enough for a lot of sites. Particularly ones like insurance policies etc.

The worst is when it says you got the wrong password (trying badger2234). Ok reset password. Oh you can't have that password (badger2234) because it has already been used as your last password. BUT YOU JUST SAID I DIDNT KNOW THE PASSWORD!!!

How can you know that? From what I can see international organised crime rings can now target anyone in the world and even kids are in on cyber crime, so hardly the protection banks promised but more risk.

It’s the constant email addresses as well. If I’d known this is how life was going to be in 1998 when I set mine up I’d have gone 123@hotmail or something.

Yes, they had serious problems, but different problems, i.e. forged signatures on cheques, withdrawal slips, credit card vouchers, etc. It was ridiculously easy to sign someone else's name if it was there in front of you on the back of a credit/debit/cheque guarantee card! It's why banks used to tell you to keep your card separate from your cheque book!

And it wasn't just banks. Cash theft/fraud was also a major problem, i.e. people stealing your cash whether pickpockets or breaking into homes, traders over-charging, charging for work not done, pretending they'd not been paid and insisting on being paid again, etc., cash being stolen in the post, and of course, robberies of cash from shops, banks, security vans, etc.

We've always had criminals wanting your money. With the internet, they've just changed the way they operate.

So you are saying the amounts and fraudulent events haven't risen?
I can't see how it is harder for banks to tell a real life person in a branch to a faceless entity on a phone or email with the "right password".

I’ll be honest, despite such good advice I’ve still got an alert that pops up every now and again telling me that about 30 of my accounts need changing as they use the same password as something else, or been compromised etc. Like you though, a lot of them will be really old accounts for places I’ve not used in years. But I really must get round to it at some point!

Yeah you are right about that, so a good choice is to have a separate phone for social media etc

Yeah you're right

There is nothing to say you have to provide a real phone number, or email address for that matter, so long as it has the right number of digits to be a valid phone number.

I routinely transpose the last for digits of my number. It’s easy enough to real off the numbers up to the last four, pause to check they are keeping up then give the last four digits in reverse order.

I checked first there is no such number in use so I’m not just giving someone else the problem.

As for email addresses so long as it’s something ‘@‘ something you can provide any old thing. No need to give your actual details to randoms.

I have a current account with a leading bank….the card expired and was not sent a replacement. Cannot log in to the app or online as cannot recall passwords, also forgotten where I have written it down (clearly the safe storage space is so safe…!) Cannot get through on phone as no phone password was ever set up, can’t get through on chat…..going round in circles with the bot…..

why are they making life so difficult? I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hack me lol

I agree. My husband does all the right things yet he was still hacked and someone made two transactions on his Barclaycard recently totalling around £100. Fortunately, he noticed quickly and they refunded him but it seems the scammers are still managing it.