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ID Theft at Wi-Fi Hotspots

By Will from Holland

I don’t mean your neighbor’s evil twins who target you with snowballs in the wintertime…

Ever heard of Phishing? Phishing describes several varieties of Internet-based scams that try to steal your personal and financial information.

Ever used a wireless hotspot to connect to the Internet?

Combine Phishing and a hotspot and you have an ‘Evil Twin.’

If you try to connect to a hotspot in public, your computer will search for available wireless networks in range. It’ll find the hotspot provided by the company where you are working (like a coffee shop). Sometimes the search may even identify a ‘Free’ wireless network.

Free—that sounds nice. Why pay to access the Internet when you can get it for free?

Because it’s very likely the ‘free’ connection is an “evil twin,” a hotspot connection that exactly matches the legal hotspot and looks legitimate, but really is a fake hotspot from a scammer.

Once you connect to the hotspot, the scammer will try to collect your banking information, passwords, and pretty much anything else they need to get to your money.

Scammers use very catchy lines to get you to connect to their hotspot, such as: “Free Internet Now” or “Complimentary Internet Connection.”