Netcraft Exercise in Evil
posted in Hurray for Geekdom |Netcraft, who I usually use for “what’s that site running?” has released an anti-phishing toolbar. Yeah, ok, it’s IE only, but they’re developing a FireFox version.
Phishing is the term used for an assortment of web-related scamming; essentially acquiring your credit card number under fraudulent means. Like a fake email telling you that your ebay account is expiring. Or a link that says it’s to “redcross.com” that actually takes you to “redcros5.com,” specifically designed to look like the redcross site and accept your donations.
Meander the Internet at your peril. Even if your status bar (that thingie at the bottom) tells you that a link takes you to a specific place, always double check the url when you get there. Javascript can alter the contents of that status bar.
In a related note, I created and put up a Red Cross link on the right menu (replacing Child’s Play, which you will see again next Christmas. It’s really to the redcross site, but you should check with your own eyes.
And if you’re running IE you might try out that NetCraft toolbar.
