Nathan Guman

CYSE 201S Cyber Security and social science

Week 6 Journal Entry

Can you spot three fake websites and compare the three fake websites to three real websites, plus showcase what makes the fake websites fake?

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Fake websites can be hard to spot. Scammers and cybercriminals continue to iterate on making their scams more convincing to gain access to sensitive information. One of the common ways to tell if a site is fake or real is to check the domain name and URL. I.e Paypal.com vs Paypol.com. Subtle differences in the URL can often be a dead give away the site it fake. Another thing to pay attention is the website content and quality. Businesses pay a lot of money to ensure their website and branding looks professional. If the site is using poor quality images or contains spelling errors, it is likely not the real site. A fake version of a banking website had misspelled words and the incorrect zip code for their mailing address.  Another important thing to look for is trusted certificates. You can Inspect the SSL/TLS certificate to ensure your data is being encrypted and with a trusted entity. Often browsers like Google chrome and Firefox will prevent you from visiting a site if it detects issues with he sites certificate.