Scammers have been thriving on the internet for a very long time, and it is now extremely important to protect yourself from fraudulent online sites. In this guide, we will look at some tips that can help you recognize such sites.
Check for Licenses
This tip is especially important for online casino users. Before you add your payment information on such websites, it is essential to check for a legitimate online gambling license. For example, a site like Casiqo is secure since it has a license from the Malta Gaming Authority. Before a casino gets a license, the regulator has to ensure that all the owners of the site are legitimate business people who are not associated with organized crime. The licensing body will also require the casino to use SSL encryption technology to prevent hackers from accessing the private information of its visitors. In addition, the sites have to ensure that all their members are above the age of 18. If you are a problem gambler, you will be able to use tools like self-exclusion.
Carefully Check the Address Bar and URL
You should also pay close attention to the URL and address bar. If it uses HTTP instead of HTTPS, you should be wary of the business and should avoid it. This is because it is likely to lose your sensitive information to hackers. Note that sites with an ‘S’ in the HTTP aren’t automatically guaranteed to be legitimate. You should study the domain name to determine whether there are any misspellings as this is a common tactic used by scammers to get user information. For example, if the domain of a site is yehoo.com, you should close it immediately as it is likely to be fraudulent.
Go through the Contents of the Website
Once you open the website, you will be more likely to recognize obvious signs of a scam. On fraudulent sites, the articles will have lots of spelling mistakes, as well as other grammatical errors. The presence of low-resolution images should also give you a hint that the site isn’t legit. In many cases, illegitimate websites will also lack a contacts page. On a legitimate site, you can expect to find the full contact details of the company, including their telephone, email address, and even links to their social media pages.
Check the Google Safe Browsing Transparency Report
The Google Safe Browsing Transparency Report allows you to copy and paste the URL of a website, after which the program will let you know whether you can trust the site or not. This tool is meant to be a last resort, and it can be extremely useful in cases where you are uncertain about the authenticity of a site. Given the wide reach of Google, it is extremely unlikely that it would miss a fraudulent website.
Conclusion
It is important to check the legitimacy of online services before you share your personal information. Lots of scammers now use fraudulent sites to steal customer data, and they can even make you lose a lot of money. To determine whether a site is legitimate, you should look out for a relevant license. You also need to study the address bar and domain name. If the site has any content, you can study it to check for any grammatical errors. As a last resort, you should use Google Safe Browsing Transparency Report.
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