How to Test Suspicious Links Before Clicking Them

Links can be compared to a mystery box: you never know what lies there until you open it. A wise person should treat links with caution. One never knows the rabbit hole a link could lead to. Caution is of utmost importance. Well, as an internet user, you can’t completely steer clear of links. You see them every day, and quite frankly, they’re enticing you to click. If you ever find a link suspicious, there are a few ways to test it:

Hover over hyperlinks

If you are don't know a hyperlink is secure or not, then hover the mouse cursor over the text to uncover the address. Then you can click later, if the address is legitimate. Note that phishing scams links use domain names which are similar to legitimate sites. Observance is the key to catching any frauds. For example, a phishing scam targeting this website may use something like www.abc-hack-news.com, which appears similar to the real thing. It’s actually www.latesthackingnews.com. Note the differences.

Hovering over hyperlinks decodes where the link leads, and could therefore keep you well informed. The links you see are actually encoded.

Say this link, for example. In HTML code, it looks something like this:  <a href= “https://latesthackingnews.com”>this link</a>. 

Lengthen shortened URLs

Certain URLs you come across can be seen as a shortened version. Some shortened URLs are legitimate; others are trying to disguise where they come from and what they may hold. Shortened URLs aren’t trustworthy, so ensure pass them though a service like CheckShortURL or Unshorten.It! , in order to lengthen it and uncover the original URL. CheckShortURL is an expand link facility: it allows you to retrieve the original URL from a shortened link before clicking on it and visiting the destination. It provides furthermore information about unshortened URL such as title, description, keywords and author of the page. It also checks if the original URL is on search engines, Twitter, and lets you know if the hidden link is safe or not.