The Internet is rife with phony, fraudulent, and scam websites. This is a terrible reality of life. The invention of the Internet and Google has brought a variety of highly handy advancements in how we buy, bank, and communicate with the world. Concurrently, this growth has also given rise to new dangers or new opportunities for crooks to defraud the naive.
In the era of digital change, the ability to recognize fraudulent website codes is not only advantageous; it is vitally important for online safety. Knowing how to identify a bogus website, even a clone of a trusted bingo site, may safeguard your personal and professional identity, financial information, and email and social media login credentials.
In essence, everything comes down to fraud. These hackers and cybercriminals are essentially modern-day scam artists. Understanding how to verify a website’s authenticity helps protect you against phony websites today and in the future.
Check The Websites Code
If you are searching for malware in a website’s source code, there are two sorts of properties you should examine: script features and iframe characteristics. Check any lines that begin with “script-src” for unknown URLs or file names. Similarly, search for URLs that are not typical. Cybercriminal activity is likely to be present if anything seems out of place or if the URL appears unfamiliar.
Check For Inconsistencies
A webpage with many writing, punctuation, capitalization and grammatical errors may have been published hastily. Although reputable websites may have odd misspellings, they nonetheless make an attempt to project a professional image. If every other word is capitalized or the language and punctuation are unusual, examine a website more closely. Scrutinize the company’s contact options (telephone, email, live chat, and physical address) and test them out.
Is the phone ever answered? Do you get a pre-recorded voicemail or a standard email? If an online email form is the only mode of communication, continue with care.
Many users have discovered a number of websites that all employ the same “live” chat that generates generic replies rather than genuinely addressing inquiries. It was apparent that none of the sites were legitimate.
An abundance of advertisements and pop-ups may signal that a website is not safe. Advertisements are not always a sign of a problem, but if there are more commercials than content or you must click through many ads to reach the page, you should be concerned. There are a number of free-for-use tools that provide rapid scans for viruses, phishing, malware, and recognized scam websites:
● Is It a Hack?
● VirusTotal
● PhishTank
● FTC Fraud Warnings
The best way to protect yourself against fraudulent websites is to install and maintain antivirus software on all your devices.
Check The URL
You may be quite surprised to learn how many people pay very little or no attention to the address bar seen at the top of their web browser. This is a grave oversight on your part. The address bar provides a plethora of information about your current location and the safety of that place. Consequently, you should make it a habit to look at the top of each page you visit at regular intervals.
In practice, the vast majority of browsers follow a concept that is often referred to as the Line of Death. The idea behind this is that a user should never put their faith in anything on the browser that is located below the so-called “line of death.” You need to be aware of reliable sources of information in order to protect yourself against an adversary who can influence everything below the line and some things above it.
Constructing a website that is almost indistinguishable from the one being impersonated is one of the most common forms of phishing. In order to accomplish this goal, cybercriminals and fraudsters have devised creative strategies for duplicating URLs.
It is not difficult to be misled since it is possible to create sub-domains that mimic genuine domains and because browsers may shorten URLs in a way that is misleading. Both of these factors contribute to the ease with which one might be misled.
What Should You Do If You Access A Bad Site
Suppose you suspect that you have landed on a fraudulent website. In that case, you should avoid entering any personal information, including banking information, a login and password, verification codes, a Facebook login, or even your own name.
If you are unsure about anything, do not complete the form. In addition, you should avoid clicking on links in emails, online posts, or direct messages from unknown senders. When determining whether or not to make a purchase from a website, it might be helpful to know whether or not the website engages in fraudulent activity. You should instantly depart a website that you believe to be fraudulent and report it to Google Safe Browsing.
