How to Quickly Double-Check a URL Address

It’s important to double-check the correctness of your URL. An incorrect URL can lead you anywhere from a frustrating website to a phishing scam.

Security

Apr 13, 2017

by PSafe Newsroom

Does the following scenario sound familiar? You receive an email saying your web browser’s security has been compromised. You’re asked to click on a link. However, when you click the link, you aren’t taken to the website you expected to go to, but instead to the website of a scammer. Make sure you’re protected online — even if you click on a dangerous link by accident. Use Anti-Hacking to secure your web browser against malicious websites, pop-ups, and phishing scams:

We don’t often think about whether a URL is correct before we click on a link or paste a URL into our web browsers. DFNDR’s Anti-Hacking tool ensures that you won’t reveal account information on false sites, like the ones you could run into by using an incorrect URL. But, just like you always double-check a site’s security before shopping online, you also want to double-check any link you visit, even if you don’t intend to enter sensitive information on the site. The following will give five simple tips for ensuring that a URL is correct before clicking a link or pasting it into your browser.

Make Sure You Remember the Beginning of the URL

The letters and symbols at the beginning of a URL are important. Don’t forget to include the forward slashes after the colon in “http://.” Additionally, don’t forget to include a “www” if your website isn’t loading properly; sometimes your website won’t load without these letters.

Don’t Forget the Ending of the URL, Either

Don’t forget to check if your domain name is “.com,” “.net,” or “.org.” The wrong ending means that your website won’t load properly.

Check for Case Sensitivity

Did you know that everything after the third slash in a URL is case sensitive? That means if you’re typing in a URL after the third slash, you need to make sure that you’re checking which letters should be capitalized and which shouldn’t.

Are You Spelling the Website’s Name Correctly?

A common hacking scheme is to change the letters in a website just slightly to dupe people. Don’t let this happen to you. If you’re familiar with the name of a website, double-check that the name is spelled correctly in the URL.

Look for Punctuation

If you’re copying and pasting a URL from an email or website, check to see that you haven’t also copied additional punctuation, like commas or periods. These pieces of punctuation will cause the page to load incorrectly.