from Hacker News

How safe is your password with Verizon?

by demosquared on 2/27/13, 7:08 PM with 46 comments

  • by gketuma on 2/27/13, 7:59 PM

    Calm down people, it is just an authorization phrase that Verizon uses to make sure you have permission to make changes. You can share that phrase with anyone that you want to make changes to your account. Verizon probably should not call it 'Password'. It is NOT the password that you use to login to their site to pay your bill or anything else. The author is confused on the whole process. The customer service rep as well should have done a better job to explain to him the process as well.

  • by kdot on 2/27/13, 7:26 PM

    You don't understand the proccess... The billing system password is a simple phrase to make certain changes to you Verizon account. It is designed to be shared with people authorized to make changes to the account, (ie. your kids, wife) if you speak with a call center employee they will ask you for the same password.

    Calm Down.

  • by jdludlow on 2/27/13, 7:40 PM

    Pranaya: and FYI – I use the same password for my bank accounts, etc..

    Someone who is serious about security would never do this. The rest of the article falls on its face at this point.

  • by rm999 on 2/27/13, 10:08 PM

    They're referring to the 'billing system password'. I may be mistaken on this, but I think this predates a time when most people had online accounts, which can create confusion now that there are two things called a password. I remember struggling to figure mine out in the late 90s when I was changing some account settings at a store. I got the impression this password really isn't meant to be very secure (it's usually just the last digits of your SSN), and is used to make account changes.

    http://vzwtipsandtricks.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-forgot-my-vzw...

    http://support.verizonwireless.com/faqs/My%20Verizon/billing...

  • by zooteo on 2/27/13, 8:42 PM

    They were definitely just asking for your security phrase, not the password for your online billing account.

    As an AT&T customer, I know having one of these "passwords" is optional. If you choose to have one as an added level of security (in addition to the last 4 of the account holders social), you can add it to the account. Again, it can be completely different from your online login passowrd and is usually something simple that can be said/understood over the phone.

    I found this whole article kind of funny. The rep must have been so confused as to why this customer was getting so hysterical over such a common thing.

  • by drivers99 on 2/27/13, 8:10 PM

    It isn't your password they wanted (which is what you use to login to the site), she was asking for your "PIN" which is a code they ask for whenever you want to make changes to your account through a store representative, on the phone, or in this case, the online chat window. When you're in the store, you don't type it in to anything, you tell it to the person who is looking at it on their computer screen. The problem was she was confusing you by asking for your password.

  • by rivenfeld on 3/3/13, 5:52 PM

    I had an almost identical conversation w/a Sprint agent a couple of days ago, where she clearly wanted my site login password (she'd already gotten the account verification code).

    After pressing the issue and refusing to provide it, she walked me through the steps needed to resolve my issue. My feeling was, esp after reading this, that they are probably using the same or a similar 3rd party to provide their live support and those 3rd parties are now finding that it's easier to log in as users and fix their issues vs trying to walk users through the various steps to fix it themselves. It probably brings their support times down - I seriously doubt they care about user security.

    Or heck, maybe it's a malicious attempt to get passwords... heck if I know, just a theory. Seems like the easiest explanation. Still, unacceptable.

  • by nwh on 2/27/13, 7:49 PM

    Still better than with Virgin Mobile, who enforce 6 digit numerical-only passwords, and whose login screen has no flood control. There's absolutely no way to have a secure account.

  • by commiebob on 2/27/13, 7:47 PM

    Your password is not safe with anyone. Use a unique, strong password for everything.

  • by codenerdz on 2/27/13, 9:53 PM