Coffeeshop wifi taught me a lesson about public networks

I was at a local shop in Austin last Saturday working on my laptop for about two hours. The barista mentioned someone got their Venmo drained sitting at the same table three weeks ago. She said it happened through a fake hotspot with a name that looked like the shop's real wifi. I checked and sure enough there were two networks with almost identical names. I switched to my phone's hotspot immediately after that. Has anyone else checked for bogus networks at their regular spots?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan51214d ago

Kept seeing those fake networks pop up everywhere now, not just coffee shops but libraries and hotels too. Feels like every public spot has turned into a game of spot the fake wifi.

elizabethwhite13d ago

Actually, that particular fake wifi trick is more common than people think, but Venmo getting drained from it specifically is a bit of a stretch from what I understand. The scam usually works by capturing your login details or credit card info, not your payment app accounts directly. Venmo has two-factor auth and stuff that makes it harder to just swipe money that way. What happens more often is hackers grab your session cookies or passwords from sites you visit on the fake network. So yeah, still really bad, but the Venmo thing sounds like a story that grew legs over time. Your hotspot switch was smart regardless, that's the safest bet.