We’ve cautioned everyone for decades to never, ever, share their passwords with anyone for any reason.

Ever.

Apparently, “never” means “except for this one case…” When applying for a mortgage, we’re now being prompted to provide the name of along with username & password for every financial account.

Don’t worry, though… it’s only used to verify account information that you’ve already provided as PDFs direct from the institutions.

And there’s no legal recourse — if you’ve willingly provided your authentication information, then they are you.

There are several things wrong with this and it absolutely feels like a scam or can be readily exploited by nefarious actors.