Like it or not, digital security has become an intrinsic part of your day. Passwords and even biometric data now affect large chunks of your life—from work to leisure. However, if you get a bit lax with your passwords and hand them out like candy, or you are unlucky enough to get hacked, things can take an uncomfortable turn. There are also uncomfortable moments when you uncover that someone’s been leeching off your account for ages without you realizing it.
Our team at Bored Panda has traveled to the dark corners of the internet to compile this list of the biggest password-sharing fails and most unpleasant hacks ever. Scroll down to check them out. If this won’t convince you to keep your passwords strong and secret, then nothing will.
#1 My Son Failed To Inform Me That His Ex-Roommate Was A Netflix Freeloader
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#2 Person Who Hacked My Credit Card Emailed Me Asking Why I Canceled His Flight
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#3 We Got An Email From Mojang About Two Days Ago, Changed The Password, And Today My Boyfriend Receives This Email
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Password sharing is a well-known phenomenon among Netflix subscribers. The basic idea was that you’d get the cheapest subscription and then share it among a few people. They might be your family members, friends, neighbors, romantic partners, or random acquaintances.
The problem is that this makes your account very vulnerable. Namely, you can’t control who else gets your password. So you might’ve found random members of your community using your sub.
#4 My Ex That I Haven’t Talked To In 6 Months Had The Audacity To Ask Me To Renew My Netflix Account So She Could Use It
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#5 Shared My Netflix Years Ago With My Mom And Sister. Had An Issue Last Night So I Checked The Recent Devices. Found Out There Were Tons Of People With My Password, Plus Someone Upped My Plan
Reset my password and told my sister I wasn’t going to share my password anymore. Chaos.
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#6 Expecting Someone To Pay For Your Netflix When You Don’t Even Know Who They Are
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Netflix has been cracking down on password sharing very heavily. AP reports that the video streaming service has also been raising prices in order to bring in more revenue. So far, it’s been a success for the company.
From July to September 2023, Netflix brought in 8.8 million new subscribers over the globe. This shows just how broadly password sharing took place. But the real numbers are even more shocking.
#7 My Girlfriend’s Instagram Account Got Hacked. There Is The Response They Gave Me
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#8 Bratty Cousin Stole My Netflix Password And When I Changed It He Wants Me To It To Him
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#9 Friend Of My Ex Has Been Using My Netflix Details Without My Knowledge For Years. Calls Me Cheap
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According to Statista, Netflix had around 247.2 million paid subscribers in the third quarter of 2023. Most people using the streaming service live in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa: a whopping 83 million subscribers live there.
Netflix has changed its business model after a less-than-stellar performance in the first half of 2022. In November of 2022, the company introduced an ad-supported tier. Around 1 in 4 new subs use this plan.
#10 My Mom Casually Using Netflix On Two Screens At Once So Nobody Else Can Watch Anything
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#11 I Accidentally Left My YouTube Account Logged in On My Laptop That I Had To Share With My Sister Last Night And This Is What She Has Done To The Recommended Section In 5 Hours
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#12 My Brother Gave Our Netflix Password To A Friend And They Started Using My Profile. I Reacted Swiftly
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Unless you’re living completely off the grid (good for you!), wherever you turn in modern society, you’re leaving a digital trail of some kind. You go to work and you log into your office computer. You go out for a cup of coffee and if you pay by card, you might have to input your PIN code, and there’s a record of your transaction.
You come back home and log into your social media accounts and your streaming services. And if you enjoy listening to audiobooks and reading high-level journalism, you might need to register for those, too. Passwords, passwords, endless passwords everywhere!
#13 My Fiancee Gave Me The Login Info To Our Baby Registry And Then Changed The Password Right After My First Addition
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#14 How Dare They Inconvenience You By Being Too Poor
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#15 Never Speak To Me Again… But Wait, Just Two More Episodes
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The issue is that you want your password to be something that you can easily remember if you ever get logged out of your account. At the same time, if your password is too basic, then you increase the risk of getting hacked. But with so many passwords that you need to keep track of, you end up doing one of three things.
#16 My Little Brother Used My Account To Subscribe To 50 Or More YouTubers. It’s Been Two Hours
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#17 First We Broke Up, Then – “Don’t Contact Me Again But Let Me Use Your Netflix”
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#18 Brother Who Refuses To Work Tries To Emotionally Blackmail Me Over Netflix Subscription
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You either ignore security concerns, use one or two passwords for everything, and pray for the best. Or you might keep a super secret notebook full of your most important logins (God forbid you lose it or someone gets their mitts on it…).
Or you use a trusted (and definitely paid) service that helps you keep track of all of your passwords, across all of your accounts and devices, while also adding an extra level of security.
#19 Gave My Netflix Password To My Two Little Cousins (Squidgame Avatars) And They Changed My Previous Profiles To Their “Mom” And “Dad”. My Family Members And I Are Considered As “Guest”
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#20 This Guy Got Into My Account And I Changed The Password So He Wanted It Back
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#21 We Got Hacked At Work And The Private Work Email Got Leaked, Yes It Says 186497, And It Is Still Going On At Around 2 Emails A Second
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These days, logging into anything from a new device is… well, it’s a process. Things are definitely on a whole other level compared to a couple of decades ago. Now, you have two-factor authentication, codes sent to you in emails and SMS messages, emails asking you to confirm whether it’s actually you trying to log in to your account from wherever you might be.
#22 I Gave My Sister The Password To My Premium Spotify Account
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#23 Someone Hacked My Taco Bell Account And Ordered $40 Worth Of Food
They used my debit card that was already hooked up to pay and didn’t leave their delivery address in the recent addresses. (The address on the delivery screen is the store it’s coming from) Although I’m pretty sure they forgot to delete their phone number from the profile section so I have that. Is there a way I could give it to the police to try and go after them?
I might be a bit more than mildly infuriated.
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#24 Someone Hacked My Spotify And Liked 241 Songs. They Also Made Their Own Playlist
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Though all of those processes might be a tad draining, they serve an important purpose. They ensure that everyone has at least one other layer of security, in order to protect personal data.
Few things are nastier than having someone break into your property and have a snoop around—whether digital or physical. Anyone who’s ever had an account hacked knows that disgusting feeling deep in the pit of their stomach.
#25 After A Year Of Separation, She Says She’s Going To Use My Netflix
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#26 My Sister Asking For My Netflix When She Is 33 And Lives With My Mom And Dad
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#27 I Was Feeling Nice So I Offered Free Hulu To A Guy Who Couldn’t Afford It
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The improvements in password security also raise another important issue. Namely, hackers have gotten so sophisticated that all of these additional layers of security aren’t just recommended, but they’re absolutely necessary.
However, nobody should be naive enough to think that there will ever come a time when all of your data will be completely safe. The fight between security specialists and hackers is neverending and takes place on a constantly shifting battlefield.
For some more examples of entitled people who ‘borrowed’ others’ passwords and accounts, feel free to check out Bored Panda’s previous article.
#28 My Buddy’s Ex-Girlfriend Stole My Netflix Info And Got Angry At Him When I Changed The Password
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#29 Guy Who Hacked My PS4 Account Admits It And Would Like Some More Free Games
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#30 Apparently I Am A Jerk For Not Giving My Email Password To Someone I Sold My Old Xbox One To
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#31 Roommate Is Using My Hulu To Watch The Game Making Me Not Able To Watch It, I Never Gave Him The Login
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#32 Logged In To Google Slides And Found This
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#33 Got Off Work This Morning And Checked My Phone To See Someone In China Was Trying To Access My Apple ID
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#34 Letting People Use Your Hulu
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#35 A Random Person Has Been Using My Disney Plus Account, After I Deleted Their Profile They Came To Mine And Started Watching There
This was their profile, I deleted it after making sure it wasn’t one of my brother’s friends or something, for some reason everything inside their profile was in Spanish.
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#36 My Xbox Account With Over A Few Months Of Play Time And Has Had A Few Hundred Pounds Spent On It Has Been Hacked, Passwords Changed
I’ve had this account since the beginning of Xbox 360.
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#37 Hacker Got My Instagram For A Week And Today I Received This On My New Private Account. The Audacity
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#38 Some Jerk Hacked My Steam Account With 2FA And Gifted Two Of Their Alts Rust And Now I’m 80-Something Bucks Down The Drain
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#39 Good Day Sir
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#40 Netflix 16+ Membership. Wife On One TV, Kid On The Other
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#41 Girlfriend’s Instagram Got Hacked And Instagram’s “Help Center” Has Not Helped Us Recover It. Now The Hacker Has Been Making These Posts About Some Crypto Scam
Linking to his own main account and when we report her old account or the hacker’s, Instagram says there seems to be nothing wrong.
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#42 Sure, I’ll Just Kindly Ask The Person That Stole My Previous PS4 To Deactivate My Account
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#43 Won’t Pay For Streaming
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#44 My Husband Shared The Hulu Password With A Friend Who Won’t Stop Sending Requests For Progressive Info To My Phone Every 15 Minutes
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#45 My Good Friend Who Has Been Posting 400+ Memories To His Instagram Account Since 2012, Has Been Hacked By Russians. Instagram Won’t Do Anything To Get It Back For Him
Image credits: Lawrence_The_Lurker