SCAM OF THE WEEK:

Sp0t th? HomogIyph

Microsoft recently announced legal action against domains that impersonate the brand using homoglyphs. A homoglyph is a letter or character that closely resembles another letter or character. Cybercriminals use homoglyphs to trick you into thinking a domain belongs to a trusted company.

Here�s an example: Scammers could use a zero (0) in place of a capital letter �O� or they could use a lowercase letter �L� in place of a capital letter �i�. Using these examples, the bad guys can impersonate MICROSOFT[dot]COM as MlCR0S0FT[dot]COM. Some cybercriminals take this method one step further by using characters from other languages. For example, the Russian character �?� could be used in place of an English letter �b�.

Don�t fall for this trick! Remember the tips below:

• Be cautious when you receive an email that you were not expecting. This trick can be used to impersonate any company, brand, or even a person�s name.
• Before you click, always hover over a link to preview the destination, even if you think the email is legitimate. Pay close attention to the characters in the URL.
• If you�re asked to log in to an account or an online service, navigate to the official website and log in there. That way, you can ensure you�re logging in to the real website and not a phony look-alike website.

Stop, Look, and Think. Don’t be fooled.