a few weeks ago I had problems accessing some features on namecheap.com, so I turned to their online support. After failing to resolve the issue, the support guy suggested doing what I needed for me.
To do that he said he needed the first 3 characters of my password. I asked if he were able to see my password, and he replied that he couldn't, and that he would feed those characters to a system that would conduct a check.
His answer wasn't really convincing, but as I needed these things done quickly (and the password was unique to that account), I played along, and since forgot all about it.
I would like to know, is there any way they're not storing passwords as clear text?
EDIT: he asked for the first 3 chars but actually claimed that any 3 would do. It makes sense (as suggested below), that they store hash of the first 3, and that he just didn't know what he was talking about.
Actually, he did ask for the first 3 chars, but also claimed that any 3 would do. Your idea still seems very reasonable to me, if I just assume he was speculating about the inner workings.
To do that he said he needed the first 3 characters of my password. I asked if he were able to see my password, and he replied that he couldn't, and that he would feed those characters to a system that would conduct a check.
His answer wasn't really convincing, but as I needed these things done quickly (and the password was unique to that account), I played along, and since forgot all about it.
I would like to know, is there any way they're not storing passwords as clear text?
EDIT: he asked for the first 3 chars but actually claimed that any 3 would do. It makes sense (as suggested below), that they store hash of the first 3, and that he just didn't know what he was talking about.