Scams, phishing, hacking, viruses… Surfing the Web is not a long calm river. If in doubt, get into the habit of checking the links on which you are encouraged to click to avoid being tricked.
In recent years, all web browsers have increased their efforts to make web browsing safer to less expose users to all kinds of scam attempts that abound the web. Armed with monitoring tools, connected to databases, they sometimes prevent you from accessing certain suspicious websites or downloading suspicious files. However, they are not infallible. They can let junk through and all it takes is one careless mistake for a malicious website to play tricks on you. It can be a phishing attempt, a scam or also a virus or malware that installs itself discreetly to steal your data or mine cryptocurrency without your knowledge. Also, it is advisable to precisely check the reliability of any Internet link (URL) towards which you have the slightest doubt before clicking on it. Several tools are there to help you, starting with your web browser itself.
Links to websites, malicious or not, lurk everywhere. In the emails you receive or on the pages you visit. They can take the appearance of a button or clickable text (like Click here for example), or be indicated in full (https://www.xxxxx). Whatever their style, your browser can help you see more clearly.
► Locate on the web page visited the link on which you are invited to click. Pass the pointer over it without clicking.
► At the bottom left of the browser, a small area is displayed showing the entire Internet address to which the link refers. Watch her carefully. If it has nothing to do with the site you thought you were looking at, move on and don’t click on the link.
Sometimes the Internet links present in the pages refer to a shortened Web address such as bit.ly/xxxx, ow.ly/xxxx, tinyurl/xxxx, etc. Therefore, it is difficult to know at first glance which site the link corresponds to using the method mentioned above. Fortunately, there are services to reveal the real address.
► Right-click on the link you want to check. From the menu that appears, choose Copy link.
► In a new browser tab, now go to the site CheckShortURL. Right-click in the field Enter your shortURL here and choose To stick on. Validate with a click on the button Expand.
► The real URL to which the link refers is immediately revealed.
You know the web address to which we are trying to redirect you but do not have enough information to assess its reliability? Again, several free web services will help you see things more clearly by giving you a reputation score. There are several like Sucuri, URLVoid or VirusTotal to only cite a few. For our example, we will use Should I click (should I click in French).
► Go to the website of Should I click. In the field Insert URL to analyze, copy the address of the website you want to check. Validate with a click on the button scan.
► The result is displayed after a few seconds. It presents on the left an image of the website or the Internet page to which the link points and on the right the recommendation. In our example, the site is considered to be 90% “Evil Twin Website”. This is a site that uses the design of an existing legitimate site but whose purpose is to steal personal data (email, identity, credit card number, etc.). We can also see the deplorable security score for the encryption of the data exchanged: 68%. This website is therefore a scam.
► The commentcamarche.net site passes the test with flying colors!
