[empyrrhicist]

One time I had to reset my password with the power company - they had such a system, and the lady had to read me something like:

Uh4zB4DP55WD!

Apparently I was a bit salty with the system when I set it.

The fact that she shouldn't have even been able to look up the password in the first place due to hashing was lost on her.

[abustamam]

That's pretty funny on a few levels, not in the least that they required a "secure" password like that but stored them in plain text.

[raddan]

I regularly conduct transactions at the branch of my local bank wherein they ask me for no credentials whatsoever. I also once forgot to bring my account number with me and the teller said "no worries, I'll look it up for you." Kind of horrifying.

[lostlogin]

Oh! But that’s safe! Secret question time: What’s your mother’s maiden name.

[jazzyjackson]

It helps that it’s a jailable offense to make fraudulent transactions

[doubled112]

Isn’t unauthorized access to a computer system also a jailable offence in most places?

Would using the password you gain through this social engineering be doubly illegal?

[empyrrhicist]

Well... sure. But people be crimeing, and some of these attacks can be done internationally.

[tonyedgecombe]

My bank’s password field is case insensitive. Of course they could have lowercased it before hashing but I doubt it.

[abustamam]

That's scary. I wonder if incompetence like that could lead to a lawsuit in the case of a breach.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if there exists a system that just asks for username with a checkbox "check here if you are the owner of this account"

[empyrrhicist]

Yeah I was a bit shocked... like... you're not supposed to know that!