tl;dr: As stated in the title.

Background

I had moved into an apartment while my home was being renovated. This was around the time WiFi first came out, so I was a bit naïve about setting it up, and I let the installers do all the work. After a couple of months, I noticed my video and download speeds had been reduced to a crawl, and that my ping time was in the low to mid triple-digit range. Several calls and a single service visit later, I found out that at least one of my neighbors had tapped into my WiFi.

Revenge

I changed the name of my router to BADGE357 and changed the password to a randomized character string of maximum length. My net speed went back to normal, and my ping time came back down to the low to mid double-digit range.

Fallout

I was in the rental office soon after, paying rent when one of my neighbors -- a cute twenty-something brunette -- came in and started complaining about how the cops had shut down her Internet connection. When I asked what made her think that, she said that the cop had posted his badge number. When I asked why they would shut her down, she said she was running an adult webcam service -- completely legal, but somewhat explicit.

(What someone does to make money is no concern of mine, as long as they do not steal from me in the process.)

I told her that my service was just fine, so she started the whole bat-the-eyes and wiggle-the-tush routine and suggested in a real sweet, seductive voice that I could allow her to tap into my service in exchange for ... favors (nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say-no-more!).

"Sure!" I said. "My router is BADGE357, and my password is..."

"YOU! You ruined my business! I have clients depending on me, and blah-blah-blah..."

I just smiled, picked up the receipt for my rent payment, and walked away.

I think she eventually got her own service, because I never heard from her again, although the cold, icy looks she gave me as we passed in the parking lot were somewhat amusing.

[NOTE 1 - 2024-12-11: This probably belongs in Petty Revenge, but whenever I post something there -- even if it is just a reply -- the modbot immediately deletes it, and I don't know why.]

[NOTE 2 - 2024-12-13: It is amazing to discover that people will claim the story is false simply because they are too young to know or remember when a neighbor's WiFi was easy to break into.]