What is a Fake Website Link and is it Dangerous?

You will come across fake website links in emails, on websites, social media, text messages and more.

In this context, “fake” means a link that doesn’t take you where it says but instead goes to some other website or web page.

Why do people make such fake links?

Mostly there is a deliberate intention to mislead – promise a link to one site but take you to a different site where you don’t want to go.

This may be an attempt to infect your computer with malware or to get you to a page you have little interest in or simply to get you to look at a video or a webpage for which the link poster gets paid per visitor.

How to Identify Fake Links

On a PC hover the cursor over the link and it should show the real destination URL. If this does not match what the link says then you have a fake link and you should not click it.
On a MAC make sure you have the status bar showing first
On Android phones you can press and keep your finger on the link and a box will open offering options but at the top it shows the complete link

Shortened URLS

Some webpages have very long addresses and if you’re sending a link to someone or posting on Twitter for example then some way to shorten these links would be welcome. There are various services on the Internet that can do just that. Twitter does this automatically for long links.

These shortened URLs make it difficult to identify the destination of the link. If in doubt – do not click.

Very Long URLs and Email Addresses

Most people create short URLs i.e. links as they want them to be easy to remember and to type e.g. fightback.ninja/the-inflammation-scam/

But some large websites deliberately create long URLs in order to make the purpose of the page easy to understand from the name e.g. www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/classification/kc_classification_appearance.htm

Scammers use long URLs in order to try to hide the true destination of the URL. E.g. www.customerservice.lloydsbank.768092676414336492872654576277cheapscam.com

That is not Lloyds Bank, but is cheapscam.com

Scammers also use the confusion trick with email addresses e.g. customerservice.lloydsbank.768092676414336492872654576277@78397123719273917cheapscam.com

This is not a LLoyds bank email address.

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January 24, 2022

Paid To Market Videos

Having a video clip go viral can be advantageous to any video producer, including to scammers.

To try to make this happen you can employ people to market your video and hopefully get lots and lots of people to view it.

That can be done in an open honest way – telling people what it’s about so they can make an informed choice on whether to watch it or not.

Or can be done dishonestly.

The radio station, along with many other businesses get numerous emails offering to pay if we include other people’s video clips (usually YouTube clips) on our website.

“I need someone to market these videos to reach a lot of views and engagement”.

“Our budget is $1000”.

That may sound reasonable but the whole thing is just a scam.

The message sender doesn’t want to pay for anything – just to get you and millions of others to view their videos as they get paid each time someone does watch.

The emails usually contain a list of videos and the exhortation that you should watch them to see which best fit your website.

Do not view whatever they are – it’s a simple trick.

Anyone who genuinely wanted to pay you for showing their videos would know who they are talking to, not sending emails to ‘undisclosed recipients’ and would have checked if your website already contain 3^rd party videos and would describe the videos.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

January 23, 2022

Regrow a Full Head of Hair in 24 days

Scammers seem to compete with each other in how ludicrous they make their claims.

Many offer magical ways to stop hair loss and regrow your hair.

This latest scammer goes the whole way and claims his scientifically proven method regrows your entire head of hair in 24 days or less.

Hair actually grows at a rate of about 0.3 mm per day so the idea of people taking his magical mineral supplement (“wake-up and see the difference every day”) and watching their hair growing daily is very far-fetched.

Just in case anyone is worried – he also guarantees no side effects.

Probably true – you don’t get side effects when there is no such supplement in the first place.

If anyone actually had a way to regrow hair in dead follicles it would be world-wide news, but it hasn’t happened and is unlikely to ever do so.

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January 22, 2022

More of Those Terrible Time-Wasters

An email claims to be from intuit.com but they are a software company we have no dealings with, so that’s fake. It says that our bill is attached and payment has been taken from the registered credit card. All lies of course, the scammer has no idea who to email has gone to as it’s been blasted out to probably many millions of email addresses on a spam list. There is an Excel format file attached which is supposed to be the order, but no chance we would open that file to no doubt find lots of malware.

Yet another ransomware attempt in the email. This one with the title ‘You have outstanding debt’. The scammer claims he has cracked my passwords and has access to my email accounts, has remote control over my computers and has copied all my files etc. The message is 2 pages long talking about personal data and the damage he can cause by releasing personal video clips, files etc. He wants payment of $1450 in Bitcoin. It’s a shame that the Bitcoin addresses can be traced back to their owner so they can be prosecuted. The email is just a pack of lies from a sad pathetic scammer, to be ignored.

There are endless emails to all of the radio station email addresses and many to email addresses made up by scammers in the hope of guessing a real email address. Many say your email account is blocked or is out of space and you need to buy more or that messages have been held etc. They are all attempts to get us to login on their fake web page that will simply steal those details to pass to the scammer. A latest one has more details than the usual. It has a list of supposed emails that are held up – Purchase order 546102399, AP Invoice 5145241122, PI remittance 345143454111 and several more. Makes no difference – it is all fake. I wont be clicking the Review Mailbox button which is a link to sadremitnerdpool.ovh which is definitely not our email provider.

An email claims to be from Majid Al Futain but the sender’s email address is actually sales @okt-tralier.com. He wants to give us millions of dollars. Sad, pathetic scammer wont be getting a reply.

“Dying priest reveals closely guarded Vatican secret” is the ridiculous title of an email. It goes on about deathbed words and how this secret is online but you must watch the video now before it disappears. The whole story is just a scammer’s fantasy to get people who like conspiracies to click the video. Pathetic rubbish.

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January 21, 2022

Coffee Shop Demo For The Danger in Facebook Likes

A very clever way to demonstrate the danger of Facebook Likes was devised by CIFAS (Fraud Prevention Service) and BT.

They used a normal looking coffee shop with a sign in the window saying ’Like Us on Facebook for a Free Coffee and Croissant”.

People saw the sign and did ‘Like’ the coffee shop on their smart phones.. What they didn’t know was that a team of researchers watched their actions and trawled through Facebook and public websites to find them and any personal details they could find about the customer within a maximum of three minutes.

In the coffee shop, their free drink was made and the waitress listening in to the researchers on an earpiece then wrote that personal information on the drink.

The video is at http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/money/money-tips/coffee-shop-customers-shocked-by-like-stunt-in-cifas-data-to-go-video-11364071638280 3/9

The customers reactions are quite funny and range from suspicion to bafflement. Hidden cameras filmed their reactions and the film ends with the line ‘Don’t make it easy for fraudsters. Set your privacy settings’.

This is a great way to show how much of our personal information is online for anyone to find.

In 2015, 23,959 people aged 30 and under were victims of identity fraud. This is up from 15,766 in 2014, and is more than double the 11,000 victims in this age bracket in 2010.

People of all ages can be at risk of identity fraud of course.

Simon Dukes, Cifas Chief Executive, said: “Fraudsters are opportunists. As banks and lenders have become more adept at detecting false identities, fraudsters have focused on stealing and using genuine people’s details instead.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other online platforms are much more than just social media sites – they are now a hunting ground for identity thieves.

“We are urging people to check their privacy settings today and think twice about what they share. Social media is fantastic and the way we live our lives online gives us huge opportunities. Taking a few simple steps will help us to enjoy the benefits while reducing the risks. To a fraudster, the information we put online is a goldmine.”

Set the privacy settings on your social media profiles so only you and people you trust can view them and be careful what you post as fraudsters can often access it.

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January 20, 2022

Predicted Scams in 2022

Action Fraud, Cifas, and UK Finance collectively received 822,276 fraud reports in 2019-20. Of which, 698,934 (85%) were online based scams. The National Crime Agency also believe that only about 20% of scams are reported suggesting there are probably several million cases of cybercrime every year in the UK.

It’s no surprise that the number and total value of scams is expected to increase in 2022.

Scams predicted to be the most common in 2022 are:

1: Cryptocurrency Scams

These scams are very big business and target mostly younger people.

They usually start with adverts on social media offering guaranteed profits and often use photos of celebrities with claims that the celebrity has made a fortune from cybercurrency investment and wants you to do the same.

These can be called ‘get rich quick’ schemes and are always fake.

2: Coronavirus Vaccine scams

Scammers have been taking advantage of the pandemic in every way they can since it began.

Since the start of the initial vaccine roll-out in December 2020, scammers have been trying to con people into paying for vaccines by sending out fake NHS text messages, emails and also cold calling.

The NHS contact people by letter and text messages to let them know when it’s their turn for their vaccine or booster, however they will never ask you for your personal information, log-in details and passwords, or bank details.

3: NHS COVID Pass Scams

The UK requires Covid passes for some events and some venues. This is freely available from the NHS but scammers have been exploiting this by sending text messages to people saying their Covid pass is ready but they need to pay for it.

These text messages appear to be from the NHS and read something along the lines of ‘you are now eligible to apply for your COVID Pass, proving you have been vaccinated’. A link will be included which will take you to a malicious website, designed to look like the NHS website, where you will be asked for your personal details and for payment to obtain your pass.

4: Romance Scams

During the Lockdowns, many people have been more lonely and online dating has become much more popular.

Romance scams typically involve malicious minded criminals who develop relationships with people over a long period of time so they can build their trust. Once they’ve built up enough trust, they’ll start to make up reasons why they need money and plead for your help.

If you’re suspicious of someone’s behaviour on a dating website, or if they’ve asked you for money or to make an investment, then it’s important that you report them on the site or app. This will protect not only you, but also others from being scammed.

5: Payment Fraud

Payment diversion fraud is where scammers intercept payments or create /amend invoices in order to divert money to bank accounts under their control.

Action Fraud say the average loss to payment diversion fraud is around £30,000 per business or individual.

This fraud usually involves the scammers hacking email accounts so they can pretend to be a supplier for example asking for payments to go to a different bank.

Be very cautious if you receive an email from a supplier, or solicitor, requesting you to change the bank details you have on record for them. If you receive an email like this, phone them directly and check that this is genuine. Don’t email them back or use any contact details provided in the email, go to a known trusted contact or use the contact details on their website.