Beware of Fake Sites That Can Steal Your Data, Here's How To Differentiate It from the Original

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The digital world has indeed made our lives easier. But like a double-edged sword, the digital age also brings with it the threat of data theft and other potential cybercrimes that cannot be underestimated. One of the trivial mistakes that can increase the risk and is quite common is accessing fake sites or not credible.

For some people, especially those who are tech-savvy, identifying which sites are fake and genuine is certainly very easy. But for the layman, it is not uncommon to get trapped and trust fake sites without knowing the risks of crime that lurk.

Then, how can we identify whether the site we are visiting is a genuine and credible page or a fake?

How to Identify Fake Sites

Here are three powerful ways to identify sites that are not credible and suspicious.

1. Check URL

The first thing you should do when visiting a site is the URL (uniform resource locators) or website address. Notice on the front whether the site uses HTTPS (hypertext transfer protocol secure) or HTTP tags. HTTPS tags will be more secure when compared to HTTP ones.

In addition, trusted sites generally have a lock icon or a description of the connection is secured. For example, if you look at the URL address of this article, you will find the HTTPS tag as well as the lock icon. That means this site is safe and credible, guys.

2. Check ads and writing

So, you need to pay attention to this too. The most easily recognizable feature of a fake site is too many ads. Plus, the sentence structure is also messy.

3. Check on Google Transparency Report

If you have done the two things above but are still not sure whether the site you are visiting is fake or not, check link validation via Google Transparency Report. The method is quite easy.

You can simply visit https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search. Then copy the site address into the check site status field and then click the magnifying glass icon or press enter.

The current status of the site will also appear. If the site is safe, then Google will display the statement "no unsafe content found".

This is the easiest way to distinguish fake and credible sites. So don't get stuck on sites that aren't clear anymore, guys. (*)

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