Other than malware detection, and scamming website forums, these are a few ways about how I could differentiate between 3 fake and 3 real websites.
Fake sites:
- sheingivesback.com
The first sign that this is a fake website is the fact that you are redirected to ‘https://workwithshein.lpages.co/shein2024/’. This domain and subdomain are completely different than that of the original URL you see. Next, you are shown very good offer of a $750 dollar gift card if you enter your credit card information. This seems to be a very clear phishing attempt. The only content present on the webpage is the radio button to accept the offer and a casual background. If you inspect the radio button, it redirects you to a domain known for scamming. There is absolutely no contact information. Lastly, the certificate shown in the browser is blank in the organization field.
- walofficials.com
This website shows many problems. Firstly, it has shortened ‘Walmart’ to ‘wal’, and is followed by ‘officials.’ A fortune 500 company has no need to claim its authenticity. Next, Walmart has had an online presence since 1995. If you run the following script in cmd you can see the registration date of a website (nmap –script whois* -sn <domain name>). This website was recently registered in 2023. Between the URL and the registered date, I could tell this site was fake.
- TiffanyCoShop.com
Much like the other sites listed, this website has a very strange name. Tiffany & Co. are a well-known luxury jewelry designer, they have no reason to utilize such a unique name, because they own tiffany.com. Next, as stated in my second website, this website has been registered for less than 2 years. For a well established company, this seems to be pretty new.
Real Websites:
- shein.com:
I could tell this was a real website for multiple reasons. It was not created by a third party like ‘sheingivesback.com’. This website has a very good layout, it is easy to navigate, has various methods of contacting the company, and the domain has been registered for quite some time. Links found on the site are operational and direct you to the correct location. Finally, the information found in the certificate matches the information of the company.
- walmart.com
This is the official website for Walmart, and it is easy to tell. First, the domain has been registered for a while, and has been consistently updated. The certificate shown in the browser matches the information of the company. The layout of the website is functional and clean. The links redirect you to the correct webpages.
- tiffany.com
Much like the other websites, the certificates line up with the company that owns the domain, and external links redirect you as expected. But the reason I picked Tiffany is because it is a luxury brand. The prices on the website reflect the product the consumer is buying. Walmart and Shein are known for discount products, but you will not find major discounts on jewelry found on the Tiffany & Co. website. If the deal is too good to be true, you can inspect further, but it probably isn’t true.