The internet is home to roughly 1.7 billion websites. Unfortunately, many of these websites live only to scam you out of your personal data or money. Here are a few signs to look out for to spot a fraudulent website.
Double-Check the URL Name
The first thing you should do before visiting a site is ensure that the domain name is the one you intend to visit. Fraudsters create fake sites masquerading as an official entity, usually in the form of an organization you would likely recognize, such as Amazon, PayPal, or Wal-Mart. Sometimes the difference between the real site’s name and the fraudulent site’s name is almost unnoticeable. For example, the cybercriminal may build a site using rnicrosoft.com, but you think you’re visiting microsoft.com.
There are two basic ways the cybercriminal, or “threat actor,” gets you to visit the fraudulent site. The first way is by a method known as “phishing.” Phishing is a form of cyberattack that is delivered mainly by email. The threat actor tries to entice you to click a link in the email that will then redirect you to a fraudulent copy of the real website.
Another way the threat actor may get you to visit the fraudulent site is by a method known as “typosquatting.” Typosquatting uses common misspellings of domain names (for example, amazom.com) to trick users into visiting fraudulent websites. You think you entered the domain name correctly, but you’re actually visiting a fraudulent…
