Phishing websites are big problem on the internet. Deviant individuals make a website that looks just like the login to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, banking websites, and others. The victim thinks they are logging into their account on the given site but really they are sending their username and password to   the criminals.

Lucky for you there is a easy way to spot a phishing website, and that lies in the URL of the website. Whenever you are asked to login to a website, especially if you clicked a link and was asked to login, take a look at the URL of the website. Whatever comes before the .com, .net, .org or whatever is the actual site you are visiting. If you go to a site like the one in the image above the website you are visiting is secure-login01.com and the subdomains, which can be anything, is videos and twitter. They try to make you think you’re logging into twitter by making a subdomain called twitter on their website  secure-login01.com. Don’t fall for it! There can be only one twitter.com so unless the url was twitter.com at the end it’s not the real site.

Criminals use these sites that look just like the real login to steal your username and passwords that could be used to get into other accounts including your bank account. Many people who are ill-informed will use the same password for several or all websites they login to. This is a bad idea because now they have your password to all your accounts and only need to discover your username which also might be the same as your already stolen username.

So remember to look at the URL of a website that you are about to login to. It takes just a few seconds to confirm the URL is correct and could save you a lot of heartache in the long run. If you have a doubt  that the Url is correct leave the site and type it in manually or follow your bookmark that you know points to the real site.