Unraveling the Mystery: Is My In-Laws’ Wi-Fi Being Spoofed by Neighbors?

Have you ever encountered a bizarre tech mystery? I certainly did, and I’m excited to share this perplexing experience involving my in-laws’ internet connection.

The Situation

Currently, I am living with my spouse’s parents in the UK, who are subscribers to Virgin Media. Their setup includes a Hub 3 router, which operates under factory default settings—meaning the SSID and password can be found on a sticker at the bottom of the device. As our household has grown significantly, the Hub 3 struggled to manage multiple connections. To remedy this, I invested in a high-end router with plans to configure the Hub 3 in modem mode and transition to the new device for Wi-Fi management.

However, upon starting the setup, I noticed something unusual: my phone maintained a weak connection to the Virgin router, even though it was powered off. Intrigued, I utilized a Wi-Fi analyzer app to pinpoint the strongest signals in the house. To my surprise, I discovered a robust connection emanating from my in-laws’ bedroom, specifically stronger on one side than the other.

The Enigma Deepens

My in-laws are convinced that there is no secondary access point within their home. Given that the main socket feeds directly into the Hub 3 and their recently redecorated bedroom shows no signs of any additional devices, it became evident that the source of this internet connection was actually coming from the neighboring house.

What added to the mystery is that the signal belonged to a TalkTalk router, not Virgin Media. Their SSID should not align with the “VM” prefix used by Virgin; instead, it should start with “TalkTalk.” After conducting a WHOIS lookup on my public IP address, I confirmed that I was indeed tapped into a TalkTalk connection.

The most baffling aspect? The unknown access point was secured using my in-laws’ SSID and WPA2 password. How could this happen?

Speculated Scenarios

As I pondered this intriguing situation, I began to formulate theories regarding how this could have occurred:

Innocent Explanation:

At some point, a previous tenant in the neighboring house may have acquired my in-laws’ Wi-Fi credentials, potentially by observing the sticker through a window or by less benign methods.
This individual provided the credentials to others in the

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