Online threats don’t take days off. Cybercriminals work around the clock to steal personal information, drain bank accounts, and compromise your digital security. A Virtual Private Network encrypts your internet connection and masks your location, which creates a protective barrier against the most common attacks you’ll encounter online. Here are the 10 scams and threats a VPN defends against every single day.
1. Man-in-the-Middle Attacks on Public WiFi
Public Wi-Fi networks at cafes, airports, and hotels are hunting grounds for hackers. They position themselves between your device and the connection point, intercepting everything you send. Passwords, credit card numbers, and private messages all pass through their systems unencrypted.
A VPN encrypts all data leaving your device before it reaches the public network. Hackers see only scrambled code they can’t decipher. ExpressVPN uses 256-bit AES encryption, the same standard banks and military organizations use. It would take billions of years for even powerful computers to crack it through brute force.
2. ISP Data Collection and Sale
Your internet service provider tracks every website you visit. They log the time you spend on each site, what you search for, and which pages you view. This browsing history gets packaged and sold to advertisers, data brokers, and marketing companies without your explicit consent.
A VPN routes your traffic through encrypted servers, which means your ISP only sees that you’re connected to a VPN. They can’t see which websites you visit or what you do there. Your browsing stays private from your internet provider, and they can’t monetize your online activity.
3. Fake WiFi Hotspot Schemes
Criminals set up Wi-Fi networks with legitimate-sounding names like “Airport Free WiFi” or “Starbucks Guest.” These evil twin networks look identical to real ones. When you connect, every piece of data you send goes directly to the scammer’s computer, and most people never realize they’ve been compromised until money disappears from their accounts.
ExpressVPN’s Network Lock kill switch protects you even if you accidentally connect to a malicious hotspot. If your VPN connection drops for any reason, Network Lock immediately blocks all internet traffic until the secure connection restores. This prevents any unencrypted data from leaking to the fake network operator.
4. Phishing Attacks That Track Your Location
Phishing scams have become sophisticated. Criminals send emails or texts that appear to come from your bank, the IRS, or a delivery company. These messages often include details about your location to make them seem more legitimate and urgent, and that location data comes from tracking your IP address across the web.
A VPN masks your real IP address and replaces it with one from their server network. Scammers can’t pinpoint your actual location or use it to make phishing attempts more convincing. When a fake email claims there’s a problem with your account at a bank branch near you, it becomes obvious it’s a scam when you’re not actually near that location.
5. Price Discrimination and Dynamic Pricing
Online retailers track your browsing history and location to adjust prices. Airlines show higher fares to people who’ve searched for flights multiple times. Hotels charge more based on your zip code. Streaming services and subscription platforms vary their pricing by country, and you often pay more simply because of where you’re accessing their site from.
ExpressVPN lets you connect through servers in different countries to see actual pricing variations. You can compare what a flight costs when accessed from New York versus London. The service offers unlimited bandwidth and operates over 3,000 servers in 105 countries, so you can shop around and research prices without hitting data caps or dealing with slow connections.
6. Government and Corporate Surveillance
Government agencies and corporations monitor internet traffic for various reasons. Some of this surveillance is legal. Some operates in gray areas. Your browsing history, search queries, and online communications create a detailed profile of your beliefs, health concerns, financial situation, and personal relationships.
A quality VPN with a verified no-logs policy doesn’t record which websites you visit, what you download, or when you connect. ExpressVPN’s no-logs policy has been independently audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. Their TrustedServer technology runs entirely in RAM, which means all data gets wiped with every server reboot. Nothing from your encrypted sessions ever gets stored on physical drives.
7. Credential Stuffing Attacks
Hackers obtain passwords from data breaches and test them across hundreds of websites automatically. If you’ve reused passwords, they can access multiple accounts with one stolen credential. These automated attacks happen constantly in the background, and most people don’t know their accounts are compromised until they see unauthorized charges.
A VPN encrypts your login credentials as they travel across the internet. Even if a website you’re logging into has been compromised, the encrypted tunnel protects your password from being intercepted in transit. This is particularly important when accessing accounts from new locations or devices where you might not have saved passwords.
8. Malicious Ad Networks and Trackers
Advertising networks track you across websites to build detailed profiles of your interests and behavior. Some ad networks have been compromised to deliver malware. Others collect so much data that breaches expose personal information about millions of users. These trackers follow you from site to site, and blocking them individually is nearly impossible.
ExpressVPN includes Threat Manager, which blocks third-party trackers and prevents apps from communicating with known malicious servers. This stops ads and trackers from following you across the web while also protecting against malware delivered through advertising networks. The feature works automatically without requiring configuration or manual blocking of individual trackers.
9. Smart Home Device Exploitation
Smart home devices like cameras, thermostats, and voice assistants connect to your network constantly. Many have weak security. Hackers exploit these vulnerabilities to access your home network and any device connected to it. Once inside, they can monitor your activities, steal data, or use your devices for larger attacks.
A VPN with router support protects every device on your home network at once. ExpressVPN offers router apps that cover everything that connects automatically. This includes smart TVs, security cameras, and voice assistants that don’t have built-in VPN support. One subscription covers up to eight devices, or unlimited devices when installed at the router level.
10. Banking Trojan Malware
Banking trojans are malicious programs that specifically target financial transactions. They record keystrokes when you type passwords, intercept authentication codes, and redirect you to fake banking websites that look identical to real ones. These attacks are sophisticated and difficult to detect without proper security measures in place.
A VPN encrypts all data between your device and banking websites, which makes it exponentially harder for trojans to intercept useful information. The encryption protects your passwords and account numbers even if malware has infected your device. This additional layer of security works alongside antivirus software to provide comprehensive protection for your financial accounts.
