Millions of users across the world fall victim to fake websites. We think that we are on a real website but well, it is a perfectly designed fake website. When you visit such websites or click on links you are in fact providing your information to the hackers. This is URL spoofing. With URL spoofing hackers can create exact copies of websites like your bank. When you enter your login credentials, the details are sent to the hacker. All you think is that either your network or the server must be down.
Giants like Google are still working on developing a new feature that will protect Chrome users. A feature that would initiate a warning when you visit a fake website unknowingly. A simple example of fake site would be – you want to go to paypal.com but you got redirected to paypal1.com after clicking on the link from your inbox.
Some Common URL Spoofing Attacks
Let’s check out common ways that hackers use to steal information from people:
Short URLs
You might have observed at many places, especially on a social media sites that there are some short links for a website. It’s a trick. As you are not aware of its destination you should never click any link blindly and put yourself on danger.
Weird Links
Many links contain characters that are unreadable. However even original sites encode their url for security purposes, these type of links are now used by hackers to lure in public. You always need to check properly before clicking on any URL.
Hidden links
One of the most effective method used by hacker is to hide links. Fake links are hidden behind buttons or words in email. When clicked it infects your computer by running a background program or might redirect you to a malicious website.
Misspelled links
Hackers create a link that is similar to a trusted website. It looks almost same tricking the customer to enter login credentials of the trusted site. Some examples of such links are paypal.com vs paypa1.com, amazon.com vs amaz0n.com. Also read our post on There’s more to security than just passwords to know more ways to keep yourself secure.
How To Recognize And Stay Secure From URL Spoofing?
There are some tips which you can consider that would keep you safe:
- Check each and every URL before clicking including all links and buttons. The one’s which you feel are not right report spam and delete the origin. You can right click -> copy link address and then check.
- Make sure your browser is always up to date along with your antivirus software.
- Always check for minor changes in the URL. As we have seen amazon and amaz0n look almost same. Don’t get tricked.
- Always stay up to date on latest scams occurring.
- If possible try to enter URL by yourself instead of clicking on any link and always stay on https://.
- Download VPN to get help of powerful encryption and along with antivirus software, you can stay both anonymous and secure. Read our article on How to Create, Configure and Use a VPN Connection in Windows 10 to know about configuring VPN.
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