I have had expess vpn for about 10 days. Initially I logged into the moderately priced Yichang hotel's wifi where i was staying and it worked, albeit slowly. However, there were open wifi connections that, more persistently than I realized, were trying to switch me from the motel's wifi to the open ones. I got frustrated one time and entered a password to a secondary gmail account even though Express' software was showing red 'xxs“. After, entering the password, I started getting multiple notifications that unknown devices were using my gmail account. Then shortly after that a notification flashed in front of me that my express account was being changed. From that point on all that would show up on my Android wifi, was open fraudulent wifis-- no hotel wifi. Tried last ditch attempt to access gmail directly, but gmail login was blocked by Google.

Got back to Wuhan and used my relatives wifi. Deleted old express account and tried to access the site directly. That didn't work. Checked Andoid History and found link to signup. Set up a totally new account and was able to check other accounts that could have been compromised, but they were not compromised as it turned out. Also, my credit card was not charged. Part of the explanation for my good fortune is undoubtedly that I intentionally kept very little info on the secondary address precisely for this type of eventuality. New account gives me Internet access.

Hope this helps other people. I should add that Express has been moderately good.

Very interesting. I just came back from China and was using Express VPN as well. I connected to airports, restaurants as well as Hilton and InterContinetal wi-fi networks, but I had no issues. I also have two-factor authentication on my e-mail and bank accounts so that may have help.

vh-- After time for reflection, here is my best guess as to what happened. Express VPN occasionally loses its connection. I believe the scammers have their wifi configured to immediately take over when Express or another VPN goes down temporarily. As I said, I got frustrated and entered a password when Express was telling me not to do so. (Didn't recognize the signal at the time) On my end, the lesson is to never use any wifi other than that provided by a known entity. (Which gets me worrying about those who could mimic a store or restaurant's or airport's wifi for example)

As I said before, I put very little financial information on my android tablet and have many email addresses not associated with my real name to fend off thieves. Which seems to have worked in this instance.

When I was staying at the InterContinental Jiuzhai Paradise, I noticed a few wi-fi networks that spelled InterContinental incorrectly. I was wondering if they were legit and someone spelled them incorrectly or if they were fake.

I've just spoken to a friend in IT... connecting to networks should manual - unless you have set your device to connect to any available network automatically. your tablet or phone shouldn't just be able to connect to random networks even if they are free and unlocked.

You could also see if two-step authentication for g-mail is turned on.

LHR "your tablet or phone shouldn't just be able to connect to random networks even if they are free and unlocked." Very good point. Thanks.

It sounds like someone was spoofing the SSID where they use the same name as the hotel's SSID but with an open connection. A person will manually connect to the hotel's secure SSID, but if the spoof SSID is stronger then the user's device can jump to the open SSID.