Wireless Invasion - What To Do?

sassybird

We have a wireless connection and for a good portion of last year did not have any encryption on it as we had problems with this when originally setting it up.

Around last summer time my teenage son mentioned a man he kept seeing parked on our road with a laptop on his knee. My son is at college and comes home for his lunch break each day. (I work full-time so he was phoning me.)

At first I didn't think much of it and told my son it was probably a local estate agent putting house details onto his pc. However, after further sightings, my son said that he felt something was not right. When I asked my son to describe the car etc, he said that it was a small blue car (an old one) and that the man looked a bit scruffy and had hair tied back in a ponytail. He also said that there seemed to be a lot of 'electrical looking stuff' in the passenger footwell of the car.

At this point I thought that there may be something wrong. I told my son that whenever he had finished with the pc, at whatever time of day, he was to unplug the power to the wireless connection. Which he did. And this guy moved away from our road within minutes.

We have firewalls, security etc. So I have suspicions this guy is using other people's wireless connections to download stuff onto his laptop (which is a bit frightening to say the least). I know this is illegal.

He said he did not see the car outside OUR house again. However after a period of a month or so, my son again saw this man parked on a different road whilst on his route home from college (still in the same general area).

He has seen him again today (first sighting after christmas) and has taken his registration number.

I am unsure what to do with this reg. Do I just ring the police and make them aware of it - or does it sound a bit cookie? :rolleyes:

Advice please - especially if you are a member of the boys in blue.

Many thanks.

superscaper

Make sure you have encryption to at least WPA. Although there have been a few prosecutions I'm not sure it's really worth it when you can prevent people from accessing your router quite easily.

LuciferTDark

Password protect it as well & change the password for the admin account on the router while you're at it as there'd be nothing stopping him just accessing admin & changing it to anything he wants to lock you out of your own connection.

loudcox

Absolutely inform the police.

It's illegal to consume someone's broadband connection without their permission. If he'd been conducting illegal activities such as downloading kiddie pr0n, *you* could be in a world of trouble for a short period of time.

robt_2

sassybird wrote: »

We have a wireless connection and for a good portion of last year did not have any encryption on it as we had problems with this when originally setting it up.

Around last summer time my teenage son mentioned a man he kept seeing parked on our road with a laptop on his knee. My son is at college and comes home for his lunch break each day. (I work full-time so he was phoning me.)

At first I didn't think much of it and told my son it was probably a local estate agent putting house details onto his pc. However, after further sightings, my son said that he felt something was not right. When I asked my son to describe the car etc, he said that it was a small blue car (an old one) and that the man looked a bit scruffy and had hair tied back in a ponytail. He also said that there seemed to be a lot of 'electrical looking stuff' in the passenger footwell of the car.

At this point I thought that there may be something wrong. I told my son that whenever he had finished with the pc, at whatever time of day, he was to unplug the power to the wireless connection. Which he did. And this guy moved away from our road within minutes.

We have firewalls, security etc. So I have suspicions this guy is using other people's wireless connections to download stuff onto his laptop (which is a bit frightening to say the least). I know this is illegal.

He said he did not see the car outside OUR house again. However after a period of a month or so, my son again saw this man parked on a different road whilst on his route home from college (still in the same general area).

He has seen him again today (first sighting after christmas) and has taken his registration number.

I am unsure what to do with this reg. Do I just ring the police and make them aware of it - or does it sound a bit cookie? :rolleyes:

Advice please - especially if you are a member of the boys in blue.

Many thanks.

See the police. You don't know what he was downloading. What if it was illegal - it is YOUR connection so the authorities would come to you. At least you will have reported it to the police, before they come to you. Worst case scenairo.

Ad-Hoc

Go to the police, the following link is from the BBC the case highlighted sounds just like yours.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721723.stm


Adrian

payless

obviously this will need log on details, so traceable, but funny how one of the biggest BB providers are actually promoting " piggy backing" someones wireless connection

https://www.beta.bt.com/apps/openwifi/

unrich

"Ponytail!!!!"

Got to be 999. Leave the wifi on, sounds like he needs more rope.

Get your son to photograph the car and the man.
Also write down the times and dates.

If you can log the MAC address of the attached wifi network card he's using it may also help with a prosecution. (somewhere there will be a "admin/management" screen with an "attached devices" menu option.

espresso

payless wrote: »

obviously this will need log on details, so traceable, but funny how one of the biggest BB providers are actually promoting " piggy backing" someones wireless connection

https://www.beta.bt.com/apps/openwifi/

They don't actually promote "piggy backing" someone's wireless connection exactly, although your equipment is used. Once you have joined, your BT Home Hub is automatically set up to become part of the network, which means that other members of the community can securely get to their own broadband account when they're in range of your Hub's Wi-Fi.
In return, you can log on to your BT Broadband account whenever you're in range of another BT FON member's Wi-Fi, as well as BT Openzone hotspots.

liam_h

I would inform the police. Have you seen the real hustle - he may well have been monitoring sites you and your family have been on and can use those details for fraud such as buying things and get access to your accounts.

And yes - it is a must to encrypt your wireless connection! To A stop people nicking your broadband and B to help prevent any fraud against your selves. With the correct software and equipment, he could easily hurt you!

marleyboy

I agree, this is a police matter, as what this individual is doing is tantamount to theft, as said previously, he could be accessing your bank a/c details, ordering electrical items in your name, and simply hanging around until collection. I would advice you secure your wireless using a new password, next time your Son sees him parked outside, tell him to phone the police and report someone acting suspiciously outside your premises.