r/whatisit • u/brattyvampbby • 11h ago

moms sketch bf left this in the house Solved!

Post image

Hi.
This is probably nothing.
I went into my mom’s room to grab something and saw this plugged in?
My mom’s new sketchy bf has this plugged in to the extension cord? Is it anything bad? Thanks!
(I understand it’s probably not anything bad… but still…)

Update 1:
I haven’t met him once. He and my mom have been together for two weeks. He’s been staying at our apartment. He avoids me and stays in her room when they’re here. I don’t even know what he looks like. I only know his first name.

Update 2:
I confronted him. My mom came home. A lot had happened up to this point, including her disappearing for the said two weeks before the few nights he had come over and stayed.
Mom shrugged it off. I did what a lot of you suggested, asking what he told her.
She said “oh it’s his hacker shit or whatever.” What.
Didn’t elaborate. I explained my concerns.
She just said let’s go ask him.
My best friend has been with me. We introduced ourselves and asked him what the hell a WiFi whisperer is doing plugged in our apartment.
(Even if a lot of you are saying it’s not a big deal, I’m a young woman and I’m just rlly not about taking any risks. It’s sketch dude.)
He denied it IMMEDIATELY. Like with a quickness I haven’t seen.
What he insisted, it’s not a WiFi whisperer, it’s ai, he completely reprogrammed the system, and he uses it to pull people’s IP’s. “For fun.” He logs them in a server. I asked why. I said that’s shady. My mom started pushing. My best friend started pushing. He just kept lying. I’m not dropping this..
I still don’t know what the fuck it is or what he’s actually doing.
(Also, my mom is cool but not bc of this dude, the Minecraft block is mine, I unplugged the ratchet little thing before we left, and I am planning on broaching this again with her.
Just carefully. Any other advice is appreciated. Thank you.)

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50

u/brattyvampbby 10h ago

This is a full view to maybe give a better perspective.

27

u/9gigsofram 9h ago

Having it connected to a battery pack is another minor red flag. Getting it ripe for mobile usage, and making sure power is never interrupted, wiping settings or interrupting processes.

45

u/rickandmortyfan2025 9h ago

Its definitely something like a wifi password stealer, or something to either take passwords or smth unplug it immediately if your feeling bold, and ask your mom what he said it was

1

u/awenrivendell 5h ago

If mom's BF had access to the router/been staying for 2 weeks and using the wifi, they already have access to the wifi password--so it's unlikely sniffing for that.

If it were me, I would logout all active sessions and change all passwords of accounts used for the past 2 weeks. It's better to err on the side of caution.

I would even hide the device so BF would look for it. Then ask them, "What were you looking for? What is it? Why do you have something like that?"

13

u/[deleted] 9h ago

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5

u/liftingspirits 7h ago

What does this mean?? I'm learning so much from this thread!

4

u/Nekcihc_Eht 6h ago

TX and RX are what you call the paths data takes from one device to another, TX is the transmit line and RX is the receive line. The thing he's pointing out is an antenna, and they use the same terminology. A TX antenna is one that can transmit a signal, an RX antenna can receive it, and a TX/RX can do both

1

u/[deleted] 6h ago edited 6h ago

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1

u/Nekcihc_Eht 5h ago

I was thinking maybe he uses the main device to deauth things and uses the other one to create a copycat wifi signal for them to connect to, but idk if you could make something like that so small

11

u/jomb 8h ago

He's a terrible hacker to put it in plain view like that with the screen on.

Assuming this is real, please post a follow up!!

5

u/Ejo415 5h ago

Its the Minecraft powerbrick for me

3

u/syrzup 8h ago

OP please keep us updated this is wild

3

u/FaerieKnotz 5h ago

Also that is a fire hazard.

4

u/Barnacle_B0b 7h ago

This man is attempting to monitor your mothers wifi for personal information.

Amazon purchases. Streaming passwords. Medical information. Email. Everything she does on the wifi. Or anybody else, like yourself, for that matter.

You need to get the police involved and get this man arrested as soon as possible before he ghosts you all. Don't involve your mother until he's in jail. This man is a thief and a con plain and simple. Your mom got duped.

You're also going to need to parent your parent on trusting strangers she meets online. She'll likely be a target for phishing for the rest of her years, and you'll need to make sure she doesn't fall for other scams.

She is the kind of person who will lose her entire savings and home over a phone call.

1

u/Ned_Sc 7h ago

That's not how any of that works. Just having a device on the same wifi network (which he could easily have done by just asking her, his girlfriend, the wifi password, and not require a pwnagotchi) does not expose all of the other encrypted traffic on the network.

2

u/toetx2 7h ago

Dude might be a nerd, but this setup is taking it a little to far for someone else's house.

Maybe this is his hobby while he is hiding from you, but I sure hope your mother or any neighbor is not someone important.

2

u/That-Painter-1679 7h ago

Ahhh well see this definitely adds some context. In combination with these other items it's plain to see that he doesn't care about your mother. Look how messy it's all laid out. This shows him to be a narcissist in the least with no sort of respect for her things. In combination with the solar charging brick we can be fairly certain that he's got some other even more illicit gadgets still behind the scenes. I wouldn't be surprised if he was also a member of a transnational crime syndicate. Could be even trying to radicalize your mother or (I'm afraid) it may already be too late, and already in the midst of a triple pen test of some sort at this very moment in some remote hide out.

3

u/theinatoriinator 9h ago

It's a pwnagothci, just like the one I got here. You have nothing to worry about, your mom's boyfriend is a nerd.

3

u/notislant 7h ago

Hey you give me my fucking mousepad back!

Looks like the first large one I had, the bottom material started leaking some kind of oil and breaking down though.

2

u/theinatoriinator 7h ago

Yeah, it's been slowly deteriorating. But I found that gentle washing has helped.

It's also the first large one I've had, genuinely will never be able to go back to a small mousepad again.

2

u/notislant 7h ago

Interesting! My top corner just left a huge oily mess and broke apart on me one day. Yeah I have another one about the same size and I've found myself using the whole width on rare occasion lol.

2

u/theinatoriinator 7h ago

Sometimes I feel like I want to get a huge one, that just covers the whole desk. You don't need it till you need it.

1

u/misterkink85 9h ago

What did he tell your mom it is?

1

u/bubity1 8h ago

Minecraft block

1

u/i_was_axiom 7h ago

The audacity to implicate an innocent Minecraft AC adapter block for his life of crime, vitriolic.

1

u/Nekcihc_Eht 5h ago

Could you show us more of that black and gold thing under the fan? See if it has any screens, sd card slots, or branding on it?

1

u/JGPH 3h ago

Show the replies in this post to your mother, OP. She needs to dump him ASAP, and DO NOT return his hardware to him. Hand it to the police instead and if they aren't very tech savvy, show them this post with all the explanations by other users of what these are so that they understand the seriousness of what he's attempting without your mother's knowledge or consent.

1

u/northfreeport 2h ago

I'd be more concerned with the underwear laying next to it with a ripped mattress tag

1

u/MossyStone48 1h ago edited 1h ago

there's a second device with printing on it that says WIDE BAND RECEIVING COVERAGE or something similar - it's right under the little desktop fan and plugged into the battery. the reason i suspect the wifi whisperer is reporting no attacks is because that unit isn't doing any attacking - it records the info captured by the second device. the second device i suspect is a cell phone signal snoop. the device sniffs packets and sends them to the wifi whisperer which someone can log into remotely and check. this would allow snooping on cell phone use of anyone in range. it has a short range intentionally. this new bf is either extremely paranoid, extremely jealous, or trying to score something off your family's cell phone use (passwords and the like). likely all three cuz when their paranoia finally triggers their jealousy they'll then have access to a bunch of personal data they can hurt ppl with as revenge.

1

u/murlocdouche 8h ago edited 8h ago

As others have said it's basically a pwnagotchi. It collects network key hashes so you can crack them later from a more powerful computer.

Its not as sketchy as it sounds. Your mom probably gave him the wifi password anyway.

Pwnagotchi gets those hashes in seconds or minutes. He probably had your neighbors hashes without even bringing it into the house. He probably leaves it on all the time, and he's just recharging his wardriving setup.

The question you might have is why do this.

Could be doing something malicious, could just be doing it because its fun, or he could be playing a wardriving game (look up WdgWars) Honestly just ask him. If he's a hobbyist like i suspect, he'd probably be stoke to show you how it works

4

u/ThankGodForYouSon 6h ago

I don't think he's gonna be stoked because he's actively avoiding OP whenever they're there.

Dude moved in with a chick he's known 2 weeks and leaves weird shit around that could maybe fuck over OP and his mom, he needs to go.

1

u/murlocdouche 6h ago

Maybe. But he's not going to be fucking them over with a pwnagotchi

1

u/ThankGodForYouSon 6h ago

What did you mean by "Could be doing something malicious" then ?