How to check a link without opening it

A link can look like a good one but take you somewhere else entirely. The good news: you can see where it goes before you open it. It takes five seconds and you don’t have to press it.

On a computer: hover the pointer over the link

Put the mouse pointer over the link, but don’t click. At the bottom corner of the window, the real address it leads to appears. If it doesn’t match what the link says, it’s suspicious.

On a phone: press and hold

Hold your finger on the link for a few seconds (don’t tap it briefly, or you’ll open it). A small window appears with the real address. Read it and you can close it without going in.

How to read the address (the important part)

The real address is the piece before the first slash /. And within it, what matters most is the part attached to “.ro” or “.com”.

Example: your-bank.secure-login.ru/... Here the real address is secure-login.ru, not “your-bank”. So it is not your bank.

Their trick is to put a well-known company’s name at the start, to put you at ease. Always look at the end.

Warning signs in the address

• Lots of hyphens or extra words: your-bank-account-verification.com.
• Swapped letters that look alike: rnicrosoft.com instead of microsoft.com (“rn” looks like “m”).
• Odd endings (.ru, .xyz, .top) for an institution in Romania.

The golden rule

If you didn’t ask for the message, don’t click at all. Go to the official site yourself, directly (typing the address in), or open the app. That way there is no way to be fooled.