HYOGO (TR) – Hyogo Prefectural Police have arrested and indicted a Chinese couple in their 30s for allegedly hiding a laptop in a hotel room to hijack the building’s Wi-Fi network and send hundreds of thousands of phishing emails, reports NHK ().
According to investigative sources, the couple checked into a hotel in Kobe in August of last year. Before checking out, they connected a laptop to the in-room Wi-Fi and concealed it in the corner of the room, leaving the device powered on and connected to the internet.
Once the couple left, an unidentified accomplice operating remotely used the hidden laptop to blast out at least several hundred thousand phishing emails. The messages directed victims to fake websites in an attempt to steal their credit card information.
The elaborate scheme was uncovered when the hotel, noticing irregularities, consulted local police. A search of the premises led investigators to the hidden device.
The couple has been indicted on charges including fraudulent obstruction of business and trespassing.
Police believe the couple was acting as “mules” for a larger, organized cybercrime ring that exploits public and hotel Wi-Fi networks to mask their IP addresses and illegally harvest credit card data. Authorities are continuing to investigate the broader syndicate.
Difficult to spot
Cybersecurity experts warn that this type of crime is on the rise and notoriously difficult to spot.
“The reality is that this kind of problem is not well known, primarily because it’s hard to notice you’ve been victimized,” said Yoshiaki Shiraishi, a professor of cybersecurity at Kobe University’s Graduate School of Engineering. “Even if a third party is hijacking the Wi-Fi, it often goes undetected, perhaps just causing the connection to slow down slightly.”
Shiraishi warned that as public access points and home routers multiply, so do the opportunities for criminals to conceal their identities.
Regarding precautions for Wi-Fi service providers, he noted, “It is crucial to ensure that Wi-Fi networks are not left unmonitored, especially when there is no way to identify who is using them. Since records of who has accessed the network should exist, providers should regularly check for connections made at suspicious times. Additionally, it is important to implement management measures — such as restricting network access to specific time windows or disabling access entirely during nighttime hours—to help mitigate these risks.”