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Krankies lose thousands after home wifi hack

Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates pantomine
Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates pantomine



Comedy duo the Krankies have told of how they lost more than £3,000 to fraudsters after their home wifi was hacked.

Janette Tough - Wee Jimmy - was playing the online game Words With Friends on her iPad at the home she shares with husband Ian in Torquay, Devon, when the fraudsters parked up outside.

Ian says he remembers seeing a dark saloon parked outside their home on the Sunday afternoon while his wife was using her iPad on the balcony.

"At the time I reckoned he had stopped to make a mobile phone call and thought nothing more of it," he tells Herald Scotland.

"Two days later, the bank had picked up on these transactions that had started draining our account."

It's believed that the couple hadn't changed the default access code on their home hub - often something as simple as admin/admin, admin/password or admin/<no-password>.

This meant that the hackers were able to use a scanning device and exploit a weakness in the system to gain access to the couple's home network, and discover a debit card number.

The hackers then went on a spending spree, buying a return flight from London to Japan and another from Manchester to Morocco. But suspicions were raised at the TSB's fraud department by a £300 bill from a Thai restaurant in Chelsea.

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"They got about £3,000 worth but they stopped the air tickets instantly so they were refunded. The restaurant, of course they couldn't stop that," Mr Tough told the Daily Mail.

The couple, both 68, have had their money refunded by the bank - and have now changed their wifi code.

However, many other people may be vulnerable to similar attacks. Research from security firm Avast earlier this year found that nearly three quarters of internet-connected households in the UK are at risk of getting attacked through their wireless router.

More than half of all routers are poorly protected by default or common, easily hacked passwords, they found.

"If a router is not properly secured, cybercriminals can easily gain access to an individual's personal information, including financial information, user names and passwords, photos, and browsing history," Vince Steckler, Avast's chief executive officer, warns.

The Information Commissioner's Office has advice on securing your wifi here.

Home Wi-Fi Routers Are Easily Hackable, Says Study
Home Wi-Fi Routers Are Easily Hackable, Says Study