A common thing we're seeing with scams now is that scammers will try and make their links look official/real. Usually they do this by creating a URL that is mostly spelled right, but has a couple letters twisted around.
An example of this would be Steam. Instead of the legitimate steamcommunity.com url, it'd be steamcomunity.com or stearmcommunity.com or any other variation.
As the days pass, the scammers keep making different variations of these links, but all of them still have the same goal: trick people into thinking they look real. Unsurprisingly, it works! Why? There are several reasons:
Bullet 2, again, this is something we all do, but it's dangerous. I cannot stress enough that you take the time to read the URL before clicking it.
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The second part of this is link masking/clickable text. We've all seen Click here style links where the url is hidden. Scammers are starting to use this method for their links due to one very simple fact that I touched upon in bullet point 1. Most people don't know you can hover your mouse cursor over clickable text and see the URL. It truly is a weird thing to be telling people "don't willy nilly click "click here" links", that honestly shouldn't even be a concern, but scammers are ruthless cucks.
If you ever see a masked link/clickable text, hover over the text and see where the URL goes to.
An example of this would be Steam. Instead of the legitimate steamcommunity.com url, it'd be steamcomunity.com or stearmcommunity.com or any other variation.
As the days pass, the scammers keep making different variations of these links, but all of them still have the same goal: trick people into thinking they look real. Unsurprisingly, it works! Why? There are several reasons:
- People are too trusting or don't know any better. I think for some people, they have never experienced an online scam before. Up until this point, every link they have clicked has been legitimate, thus it lulls them into this sense of security. In other cases, people are brand new to the online world and have no idea scams exist. They click things willy nilly and don't think twice.
- Skimming links. This is something we are all guilty of. We quickly read a link and then click it. This is what scammers primarily rely on. You see "discorc" and your mind tricks you into thinking it's "discord", so you click it.Â
Bullet 2, again, this is something we all do, but it's dangerous. I cannot stress enough that you take the time to read the URL before clicking it.
--------
The second part of this is link masking/clickable text. We've all seen Click here style links where the url is hidden. Scammers are starting to use this method for their links due to one very simple fact that I touched upon in bullet point 1. Most people don't know you can hover your mouse cursor over clickable text and see the URL. It truly is a weird thing to be telling people "don't willy nilly click "click here" links", that honestly shouldn't even be a concern, but scammers are ruthless cucks.
If you ever see a masked link/clickable text, hover over the text and see where the URL goes to.