Laughed at 2FA for years, now I'm a total convert after my Venmo got hit

I used to think two-factor authentication was for paranoid people. My buddy kept nagging me to turn it on, and I kept saying nah, I got nothing worth stealing. Then last month my Venmo got drained for $240 by some scammer in Ohio. The kicker is my password was the same one I used for like 5 other accounts. Now I have an authenticator app on my phone and even use it for my gaming accounts. Has anyone else gotten burned before finally caving and using a password manager too?

2 comments

2 Comments

sanchez.julia20d ago

Wait, you said that password was the same one you used for five other accounts, so did you actually go change all those other passwords or just the Venmo one? Cause getting hit once is a wake up call, but getting hit twice because you only fixed one door is a whole different kind of pain. And what made you pick an authenticator app over just getting texts with codes? Those texts get intercepted all the time from what I hear.

kevinw9420d ago

...and yeah that's the embarrassing part, I only changed my email and bank password that day, then spent the next weekend panicking and changing everything else after I realized I'd basically left the front door wide open while locking the bathroom window. As for the authenticator app, I went with it because I'm the guy who loses his phone twice a week, so getting texts felt like asking for a second disaster. Also I read somewhere that SIM swapping is stupidly easy and I didn't want to give scammers another shot at my dumb luck. Honestly the app is annoying sometimes, but my Venmo's been safe and I've stopped reusing passwords like an absolute rookie.