The internet has more than 1.7 billion websites. However, not all of them are legit. There are websites that are used by scammers to trick you into giving them your money and personal data.
Spotting Fraudulent Websites
Luckily, these websites can easily be spotted. Below are a few signs to look out for to know if the website that you have up is legit or not.
Check the URL Name
The first thing that you need to do before you visit a site is to make sure that the domain name is the one that you intend to visit.
Scammers create fake websites masquerading as an official entity, usually in the form of an organization that you would recognize, like PayPal, Amazon, or Walmart, according to Which.UK.
Sometimes the difference between the real website’s name and the fraudulent one is almost unnoticeable. A scammer may build a site using rnicrosoft.com but uses “r and “n” to form the letter “m”. It makes you think that you are visiting the real Microsoft website when you are not.
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There are two ways that cybercriminals get you to visit a fraudulent site. The first way is through phishing. Phishing is a form of cyberattack that is delivered by email.
The scammer tries to entice you to click the link attached in the email, and you will be directed to a fraudulent copy of the website to phish for your personal information and bank details.
The second way that scammers trick you into visiting a fraudulent site is by typosquatting. Typosquatting uses misspellings of domain names like amazom.com and rnicorsoft.com.
Typosquatting makes you think you entered the right domain name, but you are actually visiting a fraudulent copy of the site. Sometimes, a web browser will warn you, but most of the time, you won’t be notified, according to HowtoGeek.
Check the Padlock
When you open a website, look for the padlock that is located on the left side of the URL in the address bar. The padlock indicates that the website is secured with a TLS/SSL certificate, which encrypts data sent between the user and the website.
If the website has not been issued a TSL/SSL certificate, you will see an exclamation mark on the left side of the domain name. If the site isn’t TLS/SSL certified, any data you send is at risk of being intercepted.
The downside to this is that not all SSL certificates are real. These sites are caught pretty quickly, but it is still best to look a little harder at the padlock.
Check the Privacy and Return Policies
Fraudulent websites do not go to the extent that genuine websites go to concerning privacy and return policies.
For example, Amazon has a thorough return and privacy policy that shows everything the customer needs to know about each policy.
If a website has a poorly written policy, that is considered a red flag. If a website does not have policies written at all, avoid using them because it is likely a scam site, according to HBC.
Check for Poor Spelling and Grammar
Even the most authoritative of websites have spelling or grammar mistakes now and again. However, most websites have teams of professionals that gets it corrected right away.
If a website has a lot of spelling and grammar errors, then there is a chance that you are visiting a scam site.
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Written by Sophie Webster
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