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By checking the address bar, you will need to can verify that the site you accessed did not "redirect" you to a different site. Some attackers will use a "redirect" method to gather data. When redirected, you may click or access a link for a known site and may be sent to another. For example, accessing Amazon should bring you to a website with the web address of "amazon.com." If the address bar shows a different website, the website may not be legitimate. Please see the FAQ for further information about web addresses. |
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Check the website itself before conducting business with the website. Usually, at either the top or bottom of a website, there will be is an option that says called "Contact Us." If you do not trust a website, contact the company using the contact information they listed. If they you do not respond at normal business hours, or their receive a response (or you notice the phone number is out of service could mean that the website is not ), the site may not be legitimate. |
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Typically, legitimate Legitimate businesses would try to keep their website looking professionalwebsites professional in appearance and behavior. Check the website for anything things such as spelling errors, major grammatical errors, or if readability ("Does the text on the site makes sense. If any of these things are present, or the website is not presented in a professional manner, the website make sense?"). Sites with these sorts of errors may not be legitimate. |
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Searching the web address of the website could bring up results that have people reporting the website for any illegitimate activities that they encountered, such as stealing passwords or email spamming. This should be one of your last resources, since most forum-based websites are notorious for having ads that try to steal informationA common method of investigating the legitimacy of a site is to use a major search engine (such as Google). Feel free to refer to VirusTotal's tool to check for possible vulnerabilities (use the "URL" tab to scan the site). |
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Typically, when When trying to connect to an illegitimate website, your web browser will may prompt you with an error message. If you receive a message like the one below, the website may not be legitimate.
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If there is a 🔒 symbol located before the address in the address bar, this means that your connection to the website is private. Typically, if you are using a private connection. If a website has private connections, then it usually is a secure website. |
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Web addresses are split into three different parts: the protocol (https://), the hostname (www.example.com), and the file name. When checking a website's security, if If the protocol is "https" , then the website has for a site, you are using a secure connectionpage.
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Generally, a A website's Privacy Policy will state how data is collected on the company's website. If you're concerned about the data the website may be gathering, find refer to their Privacy Policy and look for anything concerning Data. If you're unable to find the website's privacy policy, you the site may not be dealing with a secure site. |
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Some common web domains are:
If a website does not have one of these domains, it may not be secure or legitimate. This does not mean that websites with these domains are secure or legitimate, these are only commonly used domains. International sites will often have a domain for their country (such as .uk). |
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No. Sometimes legitimate websites do not utilize secure connectionsNot all legitimate sites use or need to use a secure connection. This does not mean that you cannot trust a legitimate website, but that you do need to be careful when utilizing the websiteyou should exercise caution when using the site. |
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No. Sometimes a website may have a secure feature to look more legitimate, but the website itself is used to gather passwords or other important data from individuals. Some sites will behave and look like a legitimate site, when in fact they are used to lure visitors to enter sensitive data. One example of these sorts of activities is a "man-in-the-middle attack." In this scenario, the attacker sets up a site that looks like its legitimate counterpart (such as a banking site), however, the site is designed to have the victim enter sensitive data (such as passwords, SSNS, etc) for the attacker to gather. For more information on man-in-the-middle attacks, feel free to read TechTarget's article. |
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