Herb No:13
Anyone can create a website, even criminals. And one of the easiest ways to do that is to steal content from a legitimate website to use on a fake site. Cybercriminals need a credible website to perpetrate their fraud. The critical question is… Can you see through their fraud? What should you look for? What are easy tools to help you evaluate whether or not a website is suspicious, or deserves more investigation?
It’s important to verify, verify, verify! Does the website provide a physical address and phone number, as well as an email address? It is highly suspicious if ONLY an email address is provided! And if a physical address is provided, Google it and look for the business!
Also, remember to use the AI tool at ScamAdviser.com to evaluate the authenticity of a website! (A fraudulent assessment is a proof, but a legitimate assessment may mean that a more hands-on investigation may be needed.)
However, one of the best ways to see through online fraud is an exceptionally easy check for the website name using a WHOIS tool. Three good WHOIS tools are:
The most important information to look for in a WHOIS search includes:
Creation Date – how old is the registered domain? Anything less than 6 months is suspicious.
Registrant – the person who registered the domain; lots of registrants use proxy services, including criminals, to hide website ownership
Registrant Country – in which country was the domain registered? Experience has taught us that cybercriminals have been registering a LOT of their fraudulent domains in Iceland (through a Registrar called Namecheap). Keep in mind that if you see that a website that claims to be from the UK or USA is registered in the UK or USA, that doesn’t make it legitimate. By contrast, if you see that a business claims to be centered in the UK or USA, but the domain was registered in another country, like Malaysia, Russia, or Romania, for example, that is suspicious or outright fraudulent (depending on the country).
We’ve got several fake websites to show you! Stay tuned for our next blog
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