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Last month at a coffee shop in Portland changed my whole password habit
I was working on my laptop at this busy spot, and some guy two tables over asked if he could use my charger. I said sure, he plugged in for five minutes, everything seemed fine. Then my bank texted about a weird login from a phone I didn't recognize. That charger probably had a little spy gadget in it, and now I only use my own cables, even in public places. How do you folks handle public charging spots, or do you just risk it?
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fionanguyen14d ago
Totally get this! I had a similar scare at an airport lounge last year, borrowed a bank’s charger for like ten minutes and two days later my email had a login from another country. Now I carry a little power bank everywhere and treat public outlets like they’re covered in germs. I also bought a charge-only cable that can’t transfer data, just to be extra safe. You honestly can’t be too careful these days, people are way too sneaky.
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ruby_bell4714d ago
Portland is exactly where I picked up one of those tiny USB condom things, the little adapter that blocks data pins. Plugged into a wall outlet at a food cart pod and my phone started acting weird, like it was trying to sync with something. That was enough for me, now I only use the outlet if I can also use my own charging block and a plain cable I marked with a piece of tape. Also turned off auto-join for public wifi on my phone, since those sneaky chargers can mess with your network settings too. Carry two power banks now, one for the phone and one for my tablet, so I barely touch public power at all.
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