Is it possible to have utilities 'stolen' from you?

sweetpea_1981

Hi Guys,

This is my first post so please be gentle with me :-)

Not sure if I am being stupid or paranoid but here goes...

A couple of months ago our broadband slowed right down and kept dropping out. We called BT who told us we had an unusual number of devises which had been connected to wireless at some time or another. He went through them for us and we didn't recognise a whole load of them. We asked if it was possible that someone else was using the connection and he said absolutely not. So we did a reset, changed our passwords and everything went back to normal and we forgot all about it.

Then last month we got a big leap in our water and sewerage bills. The water company agreed that we did seem to have a high consumption so we have set about trying to be more careful.

Now today we have had a jump in electricity and gas. I had a chat to the guy at eon and he told me our electricity consumption is more than double the average for our size house and gas is also unusually high. He asked if I had a Jacuzzi... I wish!!! So I'm going to get one of those monitors and do some investigating.

The thing is I just don't see my family as such an unusually high consumer of these services. We do all the right things, we are insulated, use energy efficient light bulbs, don't leave things on standby.... I'm sure there are things we could do better, but half out electric consumption, I don't think so!

Soooo... do you think it is possible someone has hacked into our utilities? or does anyone have any suggestions about what could cause this?

Many Thanks!

vuvuzela

It is perfectly possible for someone to hack your broadband router and get access to use it themselves.
As for gas, electric and water, for someone to 'hack' into these would require access to your meter or your house and for cabling to be run elsewhere, which you should really notice. Monitoring your own electric use is a very good start, do it daily and also do it in periods when you've turned everything off.
Were your previous bills estimated and these new ones have been taken from actual readings, necessitating a rise to catch up in payments ?
There's definitely not someone living in your attic or basement running a cannabis farm ?

lstar337

sweetpea_1981 wrote: »

We called BT who told us we had an unusual number of devises which had been connected to wireless at some time or another.

This is the same BS they keep spinning to my dad. His router just drops all WiFi connections about 20 times a day for some unknown reason, and they say he has too many WiFi devices (about 15) connected and advises that he disconnects his family's phones and tablets when they are not in use.

The truth is, the BT hub is rubbish. I have a Netgear hub with loads of WiFi devices connected which hasn't dropped a connection since I bought it. At work we have a (nothing special) Billion router which has 50+ WiFi devices connected and never drops a connection.

In my opinion, if 15 devices is too many for the BT hub, it isn't fit for purpose!

Sorry, I know you weren't here to talk about BT, but I cant believe they keep spouting this tripe to their customers!

sweetpea_1981

Thanks for the reply!

Hmm well definitely no wires or anything that I can see, so I guess that theory is out of the window lol. Some bills have been estimates, but I always check the readings and they were too close to bother getting them changed.

Haha right now I wish there was a cannabis farm in my house, might help me to chill out about the £70 extra per month I'm paying for my power!!!

Sending my other half out later to get a monitor so we can do some testing tonight and try to work out what is going on.

sweetpea_1981

Hi Istar, Interesting to know that we are not the only ones who have struggled with BT, but it does seem to have sorted itself out now. Some of the device names were obviously ours, some I'm pretty sure were various friends and family who have visited and used the wifi. Others were very random. Bob's kindle?? I don't know any Bob. Was a bit weird.

ic

Is it the BT Fon open network? Basically your home hub is part of BTs countrywide wifi network. Your hub has a 2Mb connection reserved, to which other BT Fon customers can connect (so for example Bob walking past the house with his Kindle in his bag). I guess if you live somewhere busy (near a bus stop or railway station for example) you could wind up with a lot of connections.

You can opt out of this get the service disabled on your home hub - I guess within your account settings: http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Out-About/BT-HomeHub-3-Question/td-p/400839

Try it, maybe your connection will become more stable?

Wywth

sweetpea_1981 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

This is my first post so please be gentle with me :-)

Not sure if I am being stupid or paranoid but here goes...

A couple of months ago our broadband slowed right down and kept dropping out. We called BT who told us we had an unusual number of devises which had been connected to wireless at some time or another. He went through them for us and we didn't recognise a whole load of them. We asked if it was possible that someone else was using the connection and he said absolutely not. So we did a reset, changed our passwords and everything went back to normal and we forgot all about it.

Then last month we got a big leap in our water and sewerage bills. The water company agreed that we did seem to have a high consumption so we have set about trying to be more careful.

Now today we have had a jump in electricity and gas. I had a chat to the guy at eon and he told me our electricity consumption is more than double the average for our size house and gas is also unusually high. He asked if I had a Jacuzzi... I wish!!! So I'm going to get one of those monitors and do some investigating.

The thing is I just don't see my family as such an unusually high consumer of these services. We do all the right things, we are insulated, use energy efficient light bulbs, don't leave things on standby.... I'm sure there are things we could do better, but half out electric consumption, I don't think so!

Soooo... do you think it is possible someone has hacked into our utilities? or does anyone have any suggestions about what could cause this?

Many Thanks!

It is possible someone has hacked into your supply, particularly electricity but possibly gas too.

Easy way to identify is to turn off all appliances you are aware about and if the meter is still moving, you need to look where else energy is being consumed.
(Often a light left on in the loft is a typical cause)

An electricity monitor you can watch may will highlight peaks in consumption, and if they seem excessive, perhaps a good time to check for possible unauthorised use.