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"Free Wi-Fi" Scam In the Wild
DeadlyBattleRobot writes in with a story from Computerworld about a rather simple scam that has been observed in the wild in several US airports. Bad guys set up a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network and name it "Free Wi-Fi." You join it and, if you have file sharing enabled, your computer becomes a zombie. The perp has set up Internet sharing so you actually get the connectivity you expected, and you are none the wiser. Of course no one reading this would fall for such an elementary con. The article gives detailed instructions on how to make sure your computer doesn't connect automatically to any offered network, and how to tell if an access point is really an ad hoc network (it's harder on Vista).
Odd, because P.T. Barnum probably never said that.
There are lives at stake here!
No, I've seen people do that and they give up as soon as Windows says "Applying this to folders and files..." and the progress bar crawls along as it touches each file on their HDD. Due to their impatience, they realize sharing one folder is a much better idea. Security through laziness ... I like it!