Got phished at a coffee shop in Austin last month

I was sitting at Brew & Brew on South Congress catching up on emails, connected to their free WiFi. Didn't think twice about logging into my bank account to pay a bill. Two days later I noticed $150 in charges from a store I never heard of in Oklahoma. Called the bank and they said someone grabbed my session cookies through the unsecured network. Now I never touch anything financial on public WiFi without my VPN running. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of account takeover from a coffee shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

flores.tessa17d ago

Public WiFi is a gift and a curse for real.

patricia90517d ago

Girl, you said it. It's such a love/hate thing. I've had some real lifesaving moments where I just needed to get online and public wifi was there. But man, the number of times it's been painfully slow or just straight up not working when I really need it is frustrating. Solidarity with you on that one.