Hidden Risk Of Public Wifi: How A Single Approval Wiped A Crypto... (2026)

A crypto user who lost $5,000 from a hot wallet after a stay at a hotel said the real culprits were open WiFi, a casual lobby phone call and one careless wallet approval.

A crypto user known as The Smart Ape said he lost about $5,000 from a hot wallet after spending three days in a hotel, not because he clicked a phishing link, but because he made a series of “stupid mistakes,” including using an open WiFi network, taking a phone call in the lobby and approving what looked like a routine wallet request.

The incident, analyzed by security firm Hacken for Cointelegraph, shows how attackers can combine network‑level tricks with social cues and wallet UX blind spots to drain funds days after a victim signs a seemingly benign message.

According to the victim’s account, the attack began when he connected his laptop to the hotel’s open WiFi, a captive portal with no password, and started “working as usual, nothing risky, just scanning Discord and X, and checking balances.”

What he didn’t know was that on open networks, all guests effectively share the same local environment.

Dmytro Yasmanovych, cybersecurity compliance lead at Hacken, told Cointelegraph, “Attackers can exploit Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing, Domain Name System (DNS) manipulation, or rogue access points to inject malicious JavaScript into otherwise legitimate websites. Even if the DeFi front end itself is trusted, the execution context may no longer be.”

Related: Pectra lets hackers drain wallets with just an offchain signature

The attacker quickly found out the user was “involved in crypto” after overhearing him discuss his holdings on a phone call in the hotel lobby. That information narrowed the target and hinted at the likely wallet stack (in this case, Phantom on Solana, which was not itself compromised as a wallet provider).

Physical‑world exposure of your crypto profile is a long‑standing risk. Bitcoin engineer and security expert Jameson Lopp has repeatedly argued that openly talking about crypto or flaunting wealth is one of the riskiest things you can do.

“Cyber attacks do not start at the keyboard,” Yasmanovych warned. “They often start with observation. Public conversations about crypto holdings can act as reconnaissance, helping attackers choose the right tools, wallets, and timing.”

Source: CoinTelegraph