Scammers use a number of tools to part you from your money, your personal information or both. One of the most common is fake websites, deployed either as a stand-alone scam in their own right or as the \u201cbusiness end\u201d of a phishing scheme. Criminals and scam artists aren\u2019t going to go away anytime soon, so learning how to identify fake websites is a crucial survival skill in your online life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actual fake websites you\u2019ll encounter might come in thousands of forms, but broadly speaking there are three main kinds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One type is designed to resemble a site that you might already deal with, perhaps your bank or credit card company or a major company like Amazon or Netflix. These sites are generally used in conjunction with a phishing scam designed to trick you into thinking you need to log in to fix a problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While those sites lure you in by trying to imitate a legitimate website, a second type often works by appearing to be a slightly illegitimate<\/em> website. Typically they\u2019ll offer up the promise of something that\u2019s common but a bit shady: pirated movies or games, sexually explicit material or perhaps something as innocent as a sporting event that\u2019s geo-blocked by broadcasters in your area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A third type could be described as a hybrid of the two. While the site itself appears legitimate, what it\u2019s offering is juuuuust a bit too good to be true. That might be anything from a sweepstakes you\u2019ve supposedly won to a glittering investment opportunity. Either way, the only opportunity you\u2019ll find there involves you and your money parting company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The actual workings of a scam website can vary depending on the end goal. Sites that impersonate your actual bank or credit card company trick you into logging in with your real credentials. Once you\u2019ve done so, they can log in for themselves at your real bank\u2019s page and proceed to loot your accounts (or even lock you out of them). If it\u2019s a fake login for a major company like Amazon or Netflix, giving them your credentials means they\u2019ll have access to your full account information, which can be a boon for an identity thief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The second type of scam website has a few angles. Requiring you to open an account with them is a common ploy and puts them in possession of your name and at least some of your personal information, along (usually) with one or another payment option. Some malicious sites will fill your computer with malware, which can extricate the rest of your personal information or perhaps even record login credentials and payment methods from all of your regular sites. Another threat is ransomware, which locks down your computer\u2019s data until you pay the scammers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The third type of scam site can also exploit you in numerous ways. You might need to \u201cregister\u201d or set up an account in order to trade or to claim your prize. Again, this gives scammers access to personal and payment information. You may also need to pay \u201cprocessing fees\u201d or shipping costs on your supposed prize. Bogus investment and cryptocurrency sites are especially treacherous, taking both your personal information and your money (the purported investment), and then charging you \u201ctrading fees,\u201d phony taxes or \u201cearly withdrawal fees\u201d in order to cash out your \u2014 wholly fictional \u2014 gains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how can you tell the difference between a real website and a fake? Start by looking at your browser\u2019s address bar, where the URL displays. The URLs for almost all reputable sites now start with \u201cHTTPS\u201d rather than just \u201cHTTP.\u201d The \u201cs\u201d means that the site uses what\u2019s called a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt the information<\/a> moving on and off of a site. Scammers, on the whole, prefer your data to not<\/em> be encrypted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, look at the actual URL of the site. Look-alike sites often have an easy-to-overlook typo in their name, perhaps two letters transposed or an \u201cm\u201d and an \u201cn\u201d exchanged for each other. They may also have the wrong extension, perhaps ending with .net, .biz or newer top-level domains such as .work or .click<\/a>. It\u2019s not that legitimate companies don\u2019t use those domains; some do…but they\u2019re not likely to really be Amazon or Netflix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, scrutinize the page itself carefully. Are there typos or grammatical errors? Do they have your name right? Does the page have all the other links it would normally have, and do they work? Does it have all the fine details, like a Cookie Policy statement, Terms of Use or Privacy Policy? If any of those are, respectively, present or missing, you should be very wary indeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the same tips can be applied if you suspect you\u2019re visiting a scam website. It\u2019s not that legitimate websites don\u2019t sometimes have typos or bad grammar, but it\u2019s reasonable to expect that a real investment firm, lottery corporation or vacation rental company exercises a higher level of quality control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to go deeper, you can turn to the internet\u2019s central registry of URLs, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Anyone can go to ICANN\u2019s domain name lookup page<\/a> to find out who owns a URL (this is colloquially known as a \u201cwhois\u201d search). Just type in the URL of the site you\u2019re looking for and the search result will tell you where it\u2019s registered, how long it\u2019s been registered and (often) who owns it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the site was only recently registered or registered in a country other than its claimed location, and if its ownership information is redacted or hidden behind an anonymous numbered company, those are all red flags. If there\u2019s any contact phone number or address, you can use Spokeo\u2019s people search tools<\/a> to try and find out who\u2019s behind the site. Again, if your search comes up empty or points to a geographic location that doesn\u2019t correspond to what you\u2019ve been told, that\u2019s a red flag. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One final test is plain ol\u2019 common sense. As generations of parents have pointed out, if it sounds too good to be true…it probably is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re confident you\u2019ve uncovered a scam or fake site, the first thing to do is break off contact and reach out to law enforcement. The best place to start is the FBI\u2019s Internet Crime Complaint Center<\/a>, or IC3. Send them all the information you\u2019ve got, from the original contact (phone call, web search, phishing email) to the URL (screenshots are good too, if you have them) and any details of the scam itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you believe the scammers have successfully stolen your identity, go to the FTC\u2019s IdentityTheft.gov<\/a> website and file a complaint. The site will walk you through creating a point-by-point plan to minimize the damage. provides a venue where you can share the details of the scam, to help others avoid falling for it. If the scammers initially made contact with you on a social media site, sharing your story on the same site might help someone else avoid getting burned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several steps you can take to protect yourself from these websites. One of the first is simply to cultivate an attitude of healthy skepticism about any incoming calls, letters, emails or texts that you suspect might be phishing attempts<\/a>. If they purportedly come from a friend, reach out to that friend using another method. If they\u2019re supposedly from a company you do business with or a government agency, reach out to that company<\/a> or agency directly through a published phone number. Never click a link until you\u2019ve verified it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The tone and style of the scammer\u2019s pitch is often a giveaway as well, because they\u2019ll usually show one or more common characteristics<\/a>. One of the biggest is that there\u2019s always pressure to act now<\/em>, whether it\u2019s in the form of a carrot (\u201cPrize must be redeemed within 24 hours!\u201d) or a stick (\u201cFailure to respond will result in termination of your account.\u201d). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Software can also play a significant role in helping protect you from malicious sites. There are dozens of respected, legitimate companies making apps that can protect all your devices, from antivirus and anti-malware scanners to firewalls<\/a> (which can prevent malware from doing its job, even if it sneaks onto your computer). Some malware prevention apps, and most modern browsers, can warn you against certain types of malicious sites. Scammers can glean some information about you right from your browser, so you might even consider using a virtual private network (VPN)<\/a> to keep more of your identity safe from prying eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important to remember that, despite all the headlines, fake and scam websites account for a tiny, marginal fraction of the internet. You can go years without encountering even one. That\u2019s not to say it can\u2019t or won\u2019t happen \u2014 being struck by lightning or winning the lottery are vanishingly rare as well, but they both happen every day to someone<\/em> \u2014 but normal life online quickly becomes impossible if you compulsively attempt to verify every site you visit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, stay informed about what scams are the biggest threats at a given time (forewarned is forearmed, right?). The FTC\u2019s Scam Alerts page<\/a> is an excellent resource for scams of all kinds (the pandemic spurred a rise in unemployment scams, job scams, stimulus scams and COVID-related scams in general, for example). The SEC\u2019s Investor Alerts and Bulletins page<\/a> is the equivalent resource for investment and cryptocurrency scams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the day, you don\u2019t need to live your online life in fear. You just need to understand where and what the risks are, and act accordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Scammers use a number of tools to part you from your money, your personal information or both. One of the most common is fake websites, deployed either as a stand-alone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":24985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612,614],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","category-safety"],"yoast_head":"\nA Closer Look at Scam Websites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How To Identify Fake Websites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How To Identify Scam Websites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Reporting a Scam or Fake Site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You can use other platforms to spread the word as well. The BBB\u2019s interactive Scam Tracker<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nProtecting Yourself From Scam\/Fake Websites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t Overthink It (but Don\u2019t Under-Think, Either)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
References\u00a0<\/h4>\n\n\n\n