Image by Shahram Sharif via Flickr
Phishing is a criminal activity where scammers use the Internet to fraudulently lure people to reveal personal identity data and financial information. Scammers often send emails with links to fraudulent websites in an attempt to steal financial data. Here are three tips to spot a phony phishing website on the Internet.
- Check URL
A URL is the address for a website. Phishing scammers often misspell common words in a URL that appears legitimate to navigate users to a fraudulent webpage. For example, the url https://www.bankofamerica.com is a legitimate website. A scammer may eliminate the “i” in America and unsuspecting users may click on a link received in an email without noticing the missing letter.
2. Check if “https://” is in the Address Bar
Banking and financial transaction websites use the secure encrypted “https://” instead of the unsecure “http://”. Phishing scams that direct people to phony websites on the Internet are often not encrypted and use “http” instead of “https.”
3. Check for Valid SSL Certificate
To verify if a website has a valid secure socket layer (SSL) certificate, in most web browsers you can right click on the webpage, click on properties or view page info, click on security if needed, then click on view certificates. Some banking websites may contain a lock icon at the bottom right of the page. You can verify that the icon is valid by clicking on it which will direct you to the security page. Phony websites often have fake lock icons that shows no information when you point your mouse on the icon or click on it.
