PSA: Public WiFi at my coffee shop almost cost me $800

I was working at a Starbucks on Main Street last Tuesday, logged into their free WiFi like I do every morning. Got an email that looked exactly like my bank asking me to confirm a $800 transfer. My gut said something was off, so I called them directly instead of clicking the link. Turns out someone set up a fake hotspot with the same name, and I connected to it for 15 minutes before I noticed. Now I only use my phone's hotspot or a VPN when I'm out. Anyone else run into a fake WiFi hotspot before?

2 comments

2 Comments

sandra69321d ago

Man my gut feeling is usually just telling me I want another pastry, not that I'm about to lose $800. Good thing yours is smarter than mine!

caleb_gibson21d ago

That Starbucks on Main Street is exactly where I almost got hit too. I connected for maybe 10 minutes before my phone freaked out and asked me to re-login to the bank, which felt wrong. The fake network name was "Starbucks_Free_WiFi" with those exact spelling quirks, not the real one they use. I only noticed because my bank app wouldn't load properly on a secure page, which was a dead giveaway. Your gut feeling saved you $800, and that's honestly the biggest lesson here. I now just use my phone's data plan for anything that has my passwords or money on it.