User Confuser

(I work in IT for a particular high end women’s fashion site. One day I get a call from one of our designers in the studio.)

Caller: “I forgot my password again.”

Me: “That’s all right. Let me just reset it… and your temporary password is “TempPass1″. Capital ‘T’ and ‘P.'”

Caller: “It’s not working.”

Me: “That’s okay. Make sure to capitalize the ‘T’ and ‘P’ and try again. It’ll prompt you for a new password when you login.”

Caller: “Well… I mean… I don’t know my username either.”

(I know this particular person, so I’m sure this isn’t a malicious social engineering attempt.)

Me: “It’s your name.”

Caller: “Yeah, I don’t remember my username.”

Me: “It’s your name. First name, dot, last name.”

Caller: “Yeah, I don’t know it.”

Me: “[Caller], you know your name. I know you do. I’m calling you by your name right now.”

Caller: “Wait… Oh, yeah! Okay, hold on… Nope, I don’t think I remember my username. Can you reset that too?”

(I walked down to the studio and watched her try to login to her computer with her personal email address.)