Spent $30 on a password manager after getting burned by a phishing text

Last month I got a text that looked exactly like my bank telling me my account was locked. I almost clicked the link but something felt off. I went to the bank's app directly and saw everything was fine. That scare made me finally pay for a password manager at $30 a year. Now I don't have to remember 20 different logins and it autofills only on real sites. Anyone else had a close call that pushed you to change your habits?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wyatt1mo ago

Man that first scam text feeling is the worst. My close call was getting a fake PayPal invoice for like $400 for some antivirus software I never bought. My heart dropped for a solid five seconds before my brain caught up. Now I just assume every text that tries to rush me is a scam and I double check everything through the actual app or website. The password manager thing was a game changer for me though. I literally used to use "password123" for my email so yeah I needed help bad.

davis.casey1mo ago

Jumping off the password123 thing, that's honestly more common than people want to admit. I had a coworker who used the same password for everything including their work logins until they got hit with a credential stuffing attack on their Amazon account. That close call with your PayPal invoice is exactly why I started treating every urgent looking text or email like it's trying to trick me until I prove otherwise.

nathan_webb5d ago

Is it just me or does it feel like this whole "rush you into making a bad decision" trick is showing up everywhere now? I mean, @davis.casey your coworker situation is a perfect example. It's not just scams anymore, it's like people use that same pressure tactic in real life too. Like a car salesman who says "this deal expires today" or a website that pops up with "only 2 items left in stock" out of nowhere. It makes you wonder how many times we almost fall for something just because someone or something told us to hurry up and not think.