What is Phishing?

---

The definition of Phishing is pretty simple yet it is often misunderstood.

Phishing is a type of cyber-attack that entices people to easily provide sensitive and valuable information. Basically another type of online scamming that uses spoofed emails or website links.

It's just recently that reports on phishing attacks on Steemit users is growing rapidly and it's pretty alarming that more and more people are still unaware. These series of attacks should be addressed the soonest time possible because earning in Steemit is not that easy and eventually it will just fall on someone else' hands.

We are all targets and we are totally not safe from these lurkers but prevention is always better than cure, right? With proper knowledge and awareness, we can easily avoid this fraudulent and dreaded actions.

By now, you know what is Phishing all about and how it can ruin all the efforts you made on your Steemit account.

So how can we determine a link if it's an imminent phishing threat? Practically, there are 2 tricks to avoid phishing and save yourself from such dilemma. Wait, actually, it's just one, the first one is self-explanatory.

1. Don't be a dick, think before you click

Do I need to explain and elaborate this further? I guess we are all know the outcome if we don't take extra precautions, right? Take a moment to think and check before deciding.

2. I thinked but I'm still in doubt

A simple hover on the link will allow you to have a peek on where the link will take you. Don't be confused with sleemit, steemil, steewit or steemiit.

Nah! Please refer to the list below.

steemil(dot)com | steewit(dot)com | steemiit(dot)tk | stemit(dot)com | șteemit(dot)com | sleemit(dot)com | steeemit(dot)ml | steemitfollowup(dot)ml | steemitfollowup(dot)gq

But what about if the link is shortened or cloaked? Hovering simply wont do the trick when a link is hidden (see sample below).

Link cloaking and URL Shortening is a method used to make a long URL link into a shorter and prettier one.

Below are top URL shorteners being used nowadays.

Bit.ly | Goo.gl | Owl.ly | Bit.do | TinyURL | Anon.To

If a link is cloaked or shortened, it will be fishy, right? The best thing to do is unshorten it. There are a lot of sites that offers this service. It will allow you to expand the details of a shortened or cloak URL.

As for our sample link above, the link bit.do/eboyB when unshortened resulted to, guess what,

Tadaaa! Both resulted to steeemit(dot)ml

<sub>Unshortened via https://unshorten.it/

Unshortened via https://linkexpander.com/</sub>

There are a lot of website that offers link unshortening service but the 2 mentioned above are by far the best.

So yeah, I uncovered a phishing link, what would I do next?

Since you took precautionary measures and was able to save yourself, it's time to help those who have no idea what they are dealing with. The best thing to do is report it to @steemcleaners, you can reach them at Discord ^{SteemCleaners}. Just give them the details (links, etc) and they will do the rest.

What's interesting with Phishing is that it thrive since the 90s and the techniques are getting sophisticated as well. Everyone is a possible target and no one is excused.

The above trick is just an easy thing to do and best part of it is that it will keep you away from becoming a phishing statistic.

Thanks for reading.

Takeaway

If you are too lazy to unshorten a link, there is a Chrome extension developed by @quochuy which will do the job. It's still a work in progress but its totally functional already.

What the extension does is it will validate Steemit related websites by changing its icon color:

• red is for blacklisted sites
• green is for recognised friendly sites
• grey is for unrecognised sites

To see a full details of the Chrome app, you may check on its official Steemit post here

_{Credits
Featured Image: Photo Shelter
GIF Presentation: Dody Bireuen
Thinking Chimp Image: Medium}