Stood in line at a coffee shop in Austin and watched 3 people fall for the same public WiFi trap

I was waiting for my order at this place on South Congress and saw 3 people in like 10 mins connect to a WiFi network called "Free Austin WiFi" that was definitely fake. The real one was listed on a sign inside. I almost said something but figured they'd think I was weird. How do normal people even spot those spoofed networks? Should I start warning folks or just mind my business?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia9221d ago

Right is it really that hard to look at a sign for five seconds? I saw the exact same thing happen at a bookstore cafe in Portland last summer where like four different people connected to "Public WiFi" instead of the actual one that was literally taped to the counter. One guy even complained to the barista that the internet was slow and she had to explain he was on some random spoofed network. I get not wanting to be the weirdo who yells "hey that's a trap" but I also feel bad watching people set themselves up for identity theft over a latte.

cooper.viola21d ago

Honestly I think the bigger problem is that people just don't look for the signs. I've worked in a few coffee shops and the owner always made sure the real WiFi network name was posted in like three spots but people still just grab whatever pops up first. It's lazy scanning not being tech-savvy. And no, don't say anything to strangers, you'll just get eyerolls. Let natural selection sort it out for the people who won't take two seconds to read a sign.