Fraudulent hotspots?

A fraudulent hotspot can be hard to detect.  For example lets say your sitting at borders, and your going to connect to the borders wireless network on your laptop.  So you view wireless networks and you see one called “Borders 1” so you connect to it.  You’re surfing away then all the sudden your computer seems to be running slow. 

Little do you know you have connected to someone’s network who was just waiting for you to get on and who is downloading your files and sniffing for any passwords that you sent. If you for example checked your E-mail while you where online, this person would most likely have your e-mail name and password.

What can you do?

You should always ask someone who works at the location what the network is called that you can connect to.

Use passwords on your machine that have numbers and characters.  If you can, disable network file sharing.

Save important web surfing, such as banking and credit cards for home, or a location where you know its safe.