Hotels might seem to have secure locks and they give added security by providing safe's for your valuables, but someone can still manage to steal from you while you're in your hotel room, without you even realizing it through fake Wi-Fi connections.
Security experts are warning travelers about a technique that tech thieves are using to steal people's credit card and other personal information. They're creating fake Wi-Fi connections which appear to be a hotel Wi-Fi connection.
HealthGuard security expert Apolonio Garcia showed ABC 15 how easy it is to create a personal internet connection at any hotel. He created a connection and labeled it "Hotel Wi-Fi" and demonstrated how easy it is for someone to see information.
"As soon as someone accesses that and starts using the internet," he said, "we're able to see and capture everything they're doing."
Guests can connect to the internet, but it is being monitored through Garcia's computer.
He has "a piece of software that's running on it that's looking for username and password, that's looking for log-ins, and when it sees it, it actually logs it for use later," he told ABC.
The thief can create a mock hotel website. It looks just like the real website, but any credit card information that is used, goes towards the thief's computer.
"You can easily create a fake page, have them enter their credentials, pass the user onto the legitimate website so the user doesn't know that they just gave you – the bad guy – their credit card information," Garcia explained.
A thief that uses this technique could be anywhere in or near the hotel.
"Once you have the username and password, you really do have that user's access to pretty much anything," Garcia said.
According to security experts, 38 percent of credit card fraud occurs in the hotel industry, so while you relax on vacation, it is important to still stay alert.
