Avoid Phishing: Learn to Spot Sham Domains

Phishing Attacks Depend on Sham URLs;
Understanding the Parts of a URL Can Help You Avoid Phishing Attacks

To reiterate, phishing is an attempt to gain someone's personal data by pretending to be someone reputable. Phishing attacks are often carried out via e-mail or social media postings.  These attacks depend on registering domain names CLOSE to those of the real company or person, or by "spoofing" a familiar contact.  Learning to spot sham domain names and e-mail address is key, so you can avoid falling victim to phishing.

Today's article is going to review the parts of a domain name, as well as it's construction.  Then, we have a quiz on domain names: Is the URL Legitimate? If you can learn to spot a sham URL, you will be able to avoid most e-mail phishing attacks. And if you haven't read them yet, our previous articles on phishing can be found at http://techlaurels.blogspot.com/search/label/phishing.

What is URL Redirection?

Ever hear the term "URL Redirection" and wonder what it means? Quite simply, it means a user can type one domain into a web browser, and the DNS server will fetch a different page or domain.

This blog uses URL redirection. It was originally set up under a free account. I had registered the domain name "techlaurels.com," and I decided to use it. I logged into my domain name registrar, and I set up URL redirection. Now, if you type "www.techlaurels.com" into your browser address bar, your browser will serve up http://techlaurels.blogspot.com/ . Try it out for yourself. This is URL redirection in action. 

ICANN Verifications

ICANN stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.  They are the body that oversees the Domain Name Registration System.

Lately, ICANN is cracking down on contact information associated with Domain Name Registration.  Once a year or so, your registrar will send out an ICANN Verification e-mail, listing the contact info associated with your registration.  The e-mail should contain a link on which you are supposed to click to verify the contact info is correct.