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.

How Well Do You Know Keyboard Shortcuts? A Quiz and a Review

How Well Do You Know Keyboard Shortcuts?
Take Our Quiz to Find Out!

Keyboard Shortcuts Presented in Quiz Format,

And More on QuizRevolution as a Resource

Usually, Friday posts are Quick Tips.  Today's post is really a Quick Tips post, wrapped up in a Quiz.

This post was originally going to be "A List of Useful Keyboard Shortcuts." However, if you've been following this blog, you'll know we are in the middle of a series on Internet Quizzes and the related privacy issues.  As a part of this series, we have been exploring GOOD quiz sites, both from a user standpoint and from a marketing standpoint.

So today's list of keyboard shortcuts is presented in a quiz format. It's a fill-in -the-blank type quiz, with the answers presented after each question.There are 20 different Keyboard Shortcuts in the quiz.

Instead of writing a boring list of useful keyboard shortcuts, I dumped the list into a quiz.  Hope you enjoy playing and learning at the same time!

More information about QuizRevolution.com, the site on which this quiz is hosted, follows the quiz. If you are interested in blogging, marketing, and those types of aspects, keep reading after the quiz.  If you're just interested in keyboard shortcuts, take our quiz and learn while you play.

(Click "read more" for quiz and review.)

Quiz: What Type of Tech User Are You?

Are you a Power User or a Cyber Sucker?  

Take Our Quiz to Find Out

Are you a Power User, a Cyber Sucker, or something in between? Take this quiz to find out what type of user you are, and learn a little about internet safety in the process.

http://quizrevolution.com/ch/a251633

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If you have any trouble viewing or completing this quiz, please visit:  http://quizrevolution.com/ch/a251633 to take the quiz at Quiz Revolution itself. 

You may receive a warning about "Mixed content" if you are viewing techlaurels.com vis https.  This is because blogger uses https: protocol, but Quiz Revolution does not. You will not need to give ANY personal information to take the quiz, so the https: protocol is not necessary.

If your browser is set to block mixed content, you may need to visit http://quizrevolution.com/ch/a251633 to take the quiz.  Clicking this link will open the quiz at Quiz Revolution's website, in a new tab or window.

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Is it Safe to Take This Quiz?

This quiz is a part of our series on Privacy Issues and Internet Quizzes.  In previous posts, we have discussed the potential dangers of participating in these things, as well as some of the sites to avoid.

More on Internet Quiz Sites and the Associated Dangers

What Are You Giving Up When You Use One Popular Facebook Quiz Engine?  Maybe More Than You Think...

A Review of Nametests.com

This is the third part in a series on what you also give up when you take an Internet Quiz.  Part 1 focused on General Dangers.  Part Two reviewed the terms of use for one popular Internet Quiz site. Today, we're going to look at nametests.com.  I think about 75% of the quiz results that come across my own Facebook timeline come from nametests.com.  I think few folks visit the sire directly.  Most click-through friends' shared results to take the same quiz.  While there, they often fall into a click-hole, taking other quizzes suggested at the end of the one they just took. How many readers have taken a test at nametests?  How many of you have actually looked at their terms of services?

A Review of Quibblo, a Quiz Creating Tool, and A Quiz: How Facebook Savvy Are You?

This is the second in a series of articles discussing the privacy implications of Internet Quizzes.  The first, The Dangers of Internet Quizzes, is available at https://techlaurels.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-dangers-of-internet-quizzes.html

Quibblo: A Review

WWW.Quibblo.com

NOTE: Our quiz  (see the bottom of this page) is hosted over on Quibblo.  Quibblo is supposed to be a free source for creating quizzes that can easily be shared on Social Media.  If you are following the "journey" of this blog, I originally headed over to Quibblo to investigate its use as a resource.  Supposedly, you can embed the finished quizzes on your blogs or Social Media Pages, and several sources touted it as a good resource for bloggers. My research does not necessarily concur.

Quibblo is supposed to generate content that is easy to share and easy to embed, either on your own web site or on one of the major blogging platforms.  And quizzes can be good traffic generators for Social Media. Before you start, Quibblo promises your creation efforts will be rewarded with a widget in the sidebar to help you share, embed, or promote your content. But alas, the promised code-generating widget is absent in all three browsers!  I have contacted Quibblo to see how to get the embed code.  I will update this post when I hear back.  In the meanwhile,  the quiz is linked from the bottom of this post.  That, of course is NOT the ideal situation. Generated content should be as easy to embed as the giveaway widget featured on our giveaway post.  It is not.

This post was going to be a fun quiz about Facebook Savviness.  But it evolved as I was developing the quiz and writing the post.  The quiz is no longer the highlight of this article.  Rather, the post transformed into a warning about these quiz generators, and a review of Quibblo specifically.  I am kind of sorry my research lead me to consider Quibblo as a good option.

The Dangers of Internet Quizzes

Are Facebook Quizzes Really Harmless?

People LOVE taking Social Media Quizzes.  Sites like Buzzfeed have entire sections devoted to quizzes.  Facebook timelines are filled with results shared from various quiz-hosting sites.  Quizzes and tests can be great traffic drivers, and from a marketing standpoint, they can be very beneficial to your site.  But what about from a user standpoint?  Are there any dangers of taking these internet tests and sharing the results?  The answer, unfortunately, is neither yes nor no.  There can be great dangers in taking these internet quizzes, or they may be completely harmless.  If you scrutinize before you click, you can easily learn the difference.

What Are Some of the Dangers of Taking a Quiz?

The dangers fall into several categories.  Again, a quiz site may be harmless, and none of these dangers may apply.  Or it may be a complete and total scam site, out to cause you harm.  Most quiz sites fall somewhere between these two extremes. The trick, as with any internet activity, is to be savvy.  You need to arm yourself with the knowledge to evaluate the risks of each individual quiz. This list is by no means inclusive.  It only describes SOME of the dangers you may encounter.