That Verizon rep either didn't know or didn't want to deal with it, because carriers absolutely have a lock you can ask for. I had T-Mobile put a port freeze and a SIM swap lock on my line back in 2022 after a coworker in Brandon got hit the same way. You have to call and specifically ask for account takeover protection, and they add a PIN that has to be given in person at a store with your ID. My rep tried to sell me on their paid monitoring thing first, which does nothing to stop a swap, so I had to push back and ask for the free lock by name. The catch is the lock also slows you down if you legitimately need a new SIM, but that's a small price for not losing your rent money in 15 minutes. Call back and get someone else, because the first rep clearly wasn't trained on it.

Same thing happens in every trade, the old way works fine until you see a better way work faster. I've noticed it with mowing crews too, guys who've done it one way for years won't switch even when the new way saves them hours. You're not lazy, you just got tired of wasting your own time.