Matthew Burd

2/17/25

Can you spot three fake websites? [Refer Online Security Blogs, Public Awareness Sites, Academic Resources etc., and cite the source].

Compare the three fake websites to three real websites and highlight the features that identify them as fraudulent.

Note: Don’t generate or click on unwanted/fake websites on your web  browsers. Use examples from your sources to demonstrate what specific characteristics make these websites fake.

The first example of a fake site is “Login-amazon-account[.]com” This is an example of a fraudulent website that impersonates the Amazon login page. Amazon.com is the official Amazon website. The fake website frequently does not have HTTPS encryption, and its URL contains deceptive words like “login” and “account.” Similarly, irs-contact-payments[.]com impersonates the IRS website irs.gov and requests private information, which is a common indication of phishing. Lastly, “foxbusiness.xyz” mimics foxbusiness.com. Fake websites such as this one post dramatic or misleading stories with bad grammar and design, and they use strange domain extensions like”.xyz.” Domain name inconsistencies, lack of security, and suspicious requests for personal information are indicators of these fake websites (Source: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, StaySafeOnline).