Protect Yourself: Hackers Create 57,000 Fake Websites Each Week!
Not content to bombard our inboxes with spam, rogue keypunchers are now over whelming the Web, as well. During a three-month study in 2010, PandaLabs, an anti-malware developer, found that cyber criminals, on a daily basis, churn out thousands of websites designed to deceive users and manipulate search engines. By mimicking legit sites – usually through a dummy landing page or similar URL – the impostor sites lure unsuspecting users into clicking on them. The primary targets of such scams are habitues of money – channeling Web destinations like eBay and Western Union, which have inspired 44 percent of these copycat websites. Bower Web Solutions, Inc’s advice: Skip the clickable Google searches and hyperlinks embedded in an email, and where possible, type in the correct URL into the browser yourself.