Posted 01 July 2005 - 05:25 AM
Here here, Hoffmarn! (or is it "hear hear"?)
I work for eBay.com, specifically in account security. Every once in a while, some putz will be sent an email from security-upverify@ebay-verification-ebay121.com that says "This is eBay. For securtiy updatings, we need the following informations from you, the eBay member:
User ID:
Password:
ATM Pin number:
Credit Card number:
Credit Card expiration date:
Social Security Number:
Mother's Maiden Name:
Driver's license number:
And wouldn't you know it? Some totally fucking moronic people CAN'T WAIT TO GIVE THIS INFORMATION TO ANYONE WHO FUCKING ASKS! I'm not even kidding about the information these fake emails ask for. People are pleased as punch to enter their ATM Pin numbers into emails.
Once the dude who sent this email gets an eBay password, in he goes and lists a new cadillac for $5000, which equally totally fucking dumb people can't wait to wire transfer to Romania. "$5000 for a new caddy? And shipped for free from Romania in 2 days? And all I have to do is walk into my local Western Union office and send 5 Gs to a former soviet nation? WOW! HOW COULD ANYTHING GO WRONG!?! What's that you say? Wire Transfers are untraceable and irretrievable? It's like putting cash in an envelope and dropping it into a mailbox? Bah, why should I care. The seller told me he is trustworthy!".
eBay has this whole segment of customer support dedicated to helping members get back into their accounts once we've removed these bogus listings, changed all their passwords around and fixed all of the problems Romanians like to create. So customer support gives the member back their account and says "remember, this happened because someone found your password because you entered it into a ridiculously bogus email that you thought came from eBay. Please don't give your password to Romanians in the future. Also, please don't make your password "password"."
What does this member do once they have their account back? They say "Wow, problem solved!" and promptly change their password back to "password". Well, that was before we stopped allowing people to re-use passwords. Now they promptly change it to "password1".
Surprise surprise, the next day, "HOLY SHIT THERE'S ANOTHER $5000 CADILLAC ON MY ACCOUNT! HOW THE FLYING MOTHER OF SHIT DID THAT HAPPEN?!? I THOUGH EBAY SOLVED THE PROBLEM!!!" And the cycle starts anew. And one more waste of space on this planet decides to walk in to a Western Union office and throw his cash and a coke-inhaling Romanian, living fat off the stupidity of stupid idiots.
The moral of this story? People (especially eBay and AOL users) don't know what the hell a password is for, what it does, or why anyone would ever need one. So to any of you complete douchebags that I have described in the above paragraphs are reading this, your password keeps other people out of your account, moron. It's kinda like the key to your house. If someone has your key, they can rob your fucking house.
And to the people who decided to send $5000 to Romania for a brand new Caddillac, to you I say "BAHAHAH! You are incredibly stupid and you deserve to get ripped off a second time, just for being stupid enough to get ripped off the first time".
Aaaannyhoo, I believe I've violated most of the terms of my employment contract in this posting, so I should stop now. I hope this adds a little to the "why should I use a password" debate.