5 Characteristics of Phishing Links That Can Drain Your Bank Account

(iStock)

By:

Team of Hukumindo

Previously, the www.hukumindo.com platform has talk about "Chronology of IDR 654 Million in the Accounts of Klungkung House of Representative Members Dissapear", "Examples of Fraudulent Spam Emails", you may read also "How To Report Online Scammer Or Fraud To The Police In Indonesia" and on this occasion we will discuss about '5 Characteristics of Phishing Links That Can Drain Your Bank Account'.

Cases of digital crime using phishing methods are happening again. Lately, a resident of Bali claimed to have lost more than IDR. 600 million of his bank account. Initially, he received a message in the form of a link on the social network Facebook. The message was on behalf of a bank in the area. When the link is opened, the victim is asked to fill in some data. Instantly, the money in his account was drained. Crimes with this phishing method often use fake links on behalf of certain institutions, agencies or companies. These links usually lead to fake websites or pages that look like the original to trick the victim. After the victim fills in or submits sensitive data via the fake link, the contents of the account can be deducted.[1]

It should be noted in advance, phishing itself is a cyber crime in the form of deception or fraud attempts to obtain sensitive user data. That data, for example, is like account credentials (username and password), debit card data, or credit card data. In order to get this data, one way is to use a link containing a page that is made to look like the original website. When the data has been entered by the victim, the perpetrator will be able to immediately steal it and take over the account. This action is very detrimental to the user. Therefore, we always need to be vigilant with phishing links that are circulating.[2]

Perpetrator can create phishing links in various ways, adjusting the data they want to retrieve. For example, if you want to get debit or credit card data, the perpetrator will create a link that looks like the bank's original website. Even though there are various forms, the fraudulent links can still be recognized. So, what are the characteristics of a phishing link? For more details, here are the characteristics of phishing links that can trick and steal user data. Characteristics of a phishing link that can drain an account:[3]

1. Using a fake website name that looks like the original. The first characteristic of a phishing link is using a fake website name or URL address. The name of the website address from the phishing link is usually made as close to the original as possible. For example, “instagrammm.com”, while the original is “instagram.com”. The use of such fake website name addresses is intended so that unwary victims believe that the link is genuine. 
2. Content does not match the original website Phishing links generally contain more concise content than the original website. The quality of the content is also somewhat worse. This can be seen from the layout of the display and the contents of the writing that are not neat. 
3. Requesting sensitive data As mentioned above, the purpose of phishing is to obtain sensitive user data. Phishing links usually contain only fictitious login pages that ask users to enter account credentials.
4. Account credentials can still be read even if they are wrong Phishing links do not provide a login page that can allow users to enter their account on a platform. The login page listed on the phishing link is only fictitious and serves to collect credential data only. So, if a user enters account credentials in the form of a fake username and password on the login page from a phishing link, they can still be read. 
5. Detected as an insecure website The next feature of a phishing link is that when it is opened a warning appears "connection is not secure" in the browser. The warning indicates that the website is not safe to open because it does not have a security certificate. If you find a link with the above characteristics, you should just ignore it, don't open it and fill in any data there.

And if you have any legal issue in Indonesia territory, contact us then, feel free in 24 hour, we will be happy to assist you. 

*) For further information please contact:

Mahmud Kusuma Advocate

Law Office

Jakarta - Indonesia.

E-mail: mahmudkusuma22@gmail.com

________________

References:

1. "Kenali 5 Ciri-ciri Link Phishing yang Bisa Menguras Rekening", tekno.kompas.com., Diakses pada tanggal 3 Februari 2023, Link: https://tekno.kompas.com/read/2023/02/03/10010007/kenali-5-ciri-ciri-link-phishing-yang-bisa-menguras-rekening

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.