Beware the Internet Criminals’ Latest Trick

Some spammers, phishers, and other Internet criminals have resorted to (mis)using the convenient service of tinyurl.com in order to disguise their web site addresses and entice you into clicking. Tinyurl.com takes those weird, long URLs and converts them into something smaller and more manageable. So, instead of a URL that might look like this, http://3468664375@3468664375/o%62s%63ur%65%2e%66t%6D (not a real address), you see one that looks like this: http://tinyurl.com/d99g5. That’s a bit less intimidating and you may be tempted to click on it. Don’t; you’ll be sorry.

Never, ever click on a link in an email unless you know and trust the sender. Never, ever click on a link in a website, blog post, online article, or what-have-you, unless you know the content is safe.