{"id":152337,"date":"2026-05-06T00:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/?p=152337"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:02:00","slug":"how-much-account-verification-is-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/how-much-account-verification-is-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Account Verification Is Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"daves-37605472\" class=\"daves-single-post-before-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div><p>I&#8217;m all for enhanced online account security, but has it maybe gone a bit too far? These days, I find myself needing to sign in to some accounts over and over, and others are now putting me through hoops to prove my identity.<\/p>\n<p>All my online accounts are secured by <a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/importance-of-two-factor-authentication\/\">2FA<\/a> where available. I use a password manager (<a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/best-free-password-manager\/\">Bitwarden<\/a>) protected by a master password to manage all my passwords. My passwords are all strong and unique. Yet apparently, that is not enough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gmail<\/strong>, for example, is a perpetual pain in the butt. Admittedly, I use a locally installed email client to manage <a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/?s=gmail\">Gmail<\/a>, but on the odd occasions when I need to visit Gmail online, I have to sign in and verify my identity again, every single time. Over and over.<\/p>\n<h2>Verify, Verify, Verify Again<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Microsoft-Account-Sign-in.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-152344\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Microsoft-Account-Sign-in.jpg\" alt=\"microsoft-account-sign-in\" width=\"500\" height=\"64\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Microsoft-Account-Sign-in.jpg 500w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Microsoft-Account-Sign-in-350x45.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Microsoft-Account-Sign-in-150x19.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I recently received an <a title=\"Beware This Phishing Email From \u2018Microsoft\u2019\" href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/beware-this-phishing-email-from-microsoft\/\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"263\">email from Microsoft<\/a> Rewards suggesting that I claim my bonus reward points &#8220;before they&#8217;re gone&#8221;.\u00a0 So, I visited the Microsoft Rewards site to see what it was all about.<\/p><div id=\"daves-183552770\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>I signed in via my login details and was told that a verification code had been sent to my <a title=\"How To Change Your Gmail Address\" href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/how-to-change-your-gmail-address\/\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"264\">Gmail address<\/a>. That email didn&#8217;t arrive, and this is a common theme with Microsoft; their verification email never seems to arrive. And yes, I&#8217;ve checked and double-checked that Microsoft has my correct Gmail address recorded.<\/p>\n<p>So I opted to go with an alternative verification method, to send a verification code to my phone via text message. That worked, but that wasn&#8217;t the end of it. I&#8217;m now asked to complete a Captcha to &#8220;prove I&#8217;m human&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m presented with some sort of weird puzzle that I&#8217;m supposed to solve. Now, I&#8217;m not dumb by any means, but this puzzle left me&#8230; well, puzzled. Frankly, I had no idea. So I clicked on an &#8220;audio&#8221; option and finally managed to get signed in.<\/p>\n<p>Now, as I said, I&#8217;m all for enhanced security for online accounts, but this is getting beyond a joke. How many ways and times does one need to verify one&#8217;s identity before it&#8217;s enough?<\/p><div id=\"daves-3741404908\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-2 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m all for <a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/importance-of-two-factor-authentication\/\">2FA<\/a>, I believe it provides extremely strong security, and I have always thought that once one proves one&#8217;s identity via <a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/importance-of-two-factor-authentication\/\">2FA<\/a>, that would be the end of it.<\/p>\n<p>But nooo, now seemingly, we have to prove we&#8217;re human too via some sort of Captcha, and these Captchas are very much hit and miss. Some are quite simple, but others defy logic, as was the case with Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Are some of these organizations maybe going overboard with their verification demands?<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p><div id=\"daves-3612718434\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-3 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"daves-2502473104\" class=\"daves-after-content daves-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"3225321574\" \ndata-ad-format=\"autorelaxed\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m all for enhanced online account security, but has it maybe gone a bit too far? These days, I find myself needing to sign in to some accounts over and over, and others are now putting me through hoops to prove my identity. All my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,128,408],"tags":[10752,3157,4759,14877],"class_list":["post-152337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","category-privacy-2","category-sites-internet","tag-2fa","tag-online-accounts","tag-sign-in","tag-verification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152337"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152508,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152337\/revisions\/152508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}