Is Accidentally Scanning For Hosts Illegal?

[EmailMain123]

Is accidentally scanning for hosts illegal? I'm currently learning ethical hacking/information security using YouTube and google. I was attempting to scan my home network for hosts(a few laptops and phones). I was using a VM and I had the network setting set to NAT instead of bridged. When I did the NMap scan it came up with about 250 hosts, I was completely surprised until I figured out the issue. I changed the VM network setting to bridged and then attempted to scan my network and it worked. I would like to specify what I did a little more. I merely scanned for HOSTs on my network, I did not do a port scan or anything. So, when I initially attempted to do the scan, I believe that I may have scanned all the machines on my block or something, hence the 250 machines that NMap said were up. I did not port scan them or anything. Was this a crime that I unwittingly committed?

[Peter Pedant]

no
no criminal intent

leaving aside driving offences, virtually every crime has to have a criminal intent - theft - intention to permantently deprive
s2 Fraud - to gain financial advantage

and you say at the beginning - it was an accident
sleep well

[Kidas]

I am not a lawyer

But I don't think you have done anything illegal... (though that kind of activity may well be illegal in DPRK / China / Singapore)

There is a small risk that one of the hosts you identified would realise they have been scanned and seek to find out who did it and then try to gain recompense for privacy issues, but I suspect that possibility is so remote as to be negligable.

Also, you may have broken the terms of your agreement with the ISP. I have no idea whether your ISP bans scanning for hosts or even port scanning, but many of them have general anti-hacking clauses.
A single, 'accidental' occurrance probably won't get noticed, but any more 'accidents' might increase the chances of you being identified (fingered?)

When I stay in hotels or at conferences my laptop will often pick up hundreds of hosts on the same network, without using any of those specialised tools. If people choose to join public networks with no security or privacy protection, some would argue that it is their own lookout.

More info here:
https://nmap.org/book/legal-issues.html

[Peter Pedant]

if you are doing this yourself
you need to read mark and inwardly digest

https://www.inbrief.co.uk/offences/hacking-of-computers/

and

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/cybercrime-legal-guidance

I googled ..... UK legal aspect of hacking
quite a lot there
clearly this does not cover scamming, phishing, dipping, and stealing