Mobile Connectivity Scams

Be Aware of the Scam

Using our laptop computers, iPods, BlackBerrys, PDAs and cell phones to get internet connections in hotels, restaurants, airports, office lobbies, etc. is very convenient, but fraught with risk.

Scam artists have perfected many ways to steal the information we send over the Internet, including usernames and passwords for email, bank accounts, etc.

Here are a few of the scams:

Man In The Middle

It's an ad hoc, peer-to-peer network, possibly set up as a trap by someone with a laptop nearby. You can use the Internet, because the attacker has set up his PC to let you browse the Internet via his connection. But because you're using his connection, all your traffic goes through his PC, so he can see everything you do online, including all the usernames and passwords you enter for financial and other Web sites.

In addition, because you've directly connected to the attack PC on a peer-to-peer basis, if you've set up your PC to allow file sharing the attacker can have complete run of your PC, stealing files and data and planting malware on it. If it's an ad hoc network, it will be called a "computer-to-computer" network; normal wireless networks are simply called wireless networks. Click here to learn how to identify "computer-to-computer" networks and avoid them like the plague.

Evil Twin

Browse the wireless networks available, and maybe you'll find a network named "tmobile" or "wayport" or some other common name among Wi-Fi service providers. Sure enough, your browser pulls up a page asking for your credit card information... Surprise: You might have just been punk'd by a hacker who has set up a site that is an exact replica of a real a legitimate Wi-Fi service but has removed all security so he can harvest your credit card information. Click here.

Wi-Fi Clone Scam

Scammers set up and clone popular wireless networks and even create free networks and wait for the victims. When someone turns on their laptop,they simply browse the available networks and choose the one that they want. If the scammers are lucky and the laptop user chooses the cloned network, the scammers now have complete access to their computer.

Even if there is security and protective software on your laptop, you will find that it will not do much of anything to offer protection against this Wi-Fi scam. Click here for full information

Prefetch

Direct calls to your telephone are another method used by 'scammers'. Here is one example of what happens:

You receive a telephone call from someone purporting to represent "Windows Operating Systems" Support indicating they have detected that your computer has been running slow recently.

You are asked to go to your "Start" menu, go to the "Run" option and in the dialogue type in "prefetch".

You are then told that all the files displayed are junk and contain viruses.

This is not so as Prefetch in itself is harmless as it is a special Windows system folder that is used to speed up the starting of Windows and any programmes you run. None of the files in Prefetch can carry a virus.

It is extremely unlikely that your system has been infected by a virus. What is more likely is that the caller will try to sell you a useless piece of software and try to obtain your credit card details in the process. This is definitely a scam - do not proceed.