{"id":3547,"date":"2014-04-02T05:01:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T09:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kasperskydaily.com\/uk\/?p=3547"},"modified":"2020-02-26T15:08:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:08:51","slug":"fake-sites-apr1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/fake-sites-apr1\/3547\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotting fake websites on April Fools’ Day (and other days)"},"content":{"rendered":"

You have a particularly high chance of encountering fake news on April Fool\u2019s Day. In addition to joking headlines of mainstream media outlets, you can encounter a link to dedicated sites, full of news satire or even a targeted prank. However, some sites are created not for jokes, but for money theft.<\/p>\n

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News satire<\/h2>\n

The well respected news satire genre is more than 150 years old. One of its famous founding fathers was Mark Twain. The Internet helped this genre find a new lease on life; there are now many sites dedicated entirely to mainstream media parody.\u00a0 Such satirical news sites are easily confused with the real deal as their design is very respectable and follows every principle of an ordinary news site.<\/p>\n

Check the address bar when you visit a news site. Don\u2019t trust news articles from sites that are unfamiliar to you.<\/div>\n

A few of these world-famous satirical news sites include \u00a0The Onion<\/a>, The Spoof<\/a>, The Borowitz report<\/a>, World Daily News report<\/a> and Private Eye<\/a>. The last three are especially \u201cdangerous\u201d as their names don\u2019t suggest that content is made up; you must rely on common sense to tell fake news from real stories. The Borowitz report even lives on the website of New Yorker magazine.<\/p>\n

\"apple-onion\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many visitors take fake news at face value. Don\u2019t be fooled \u2013 be weary of any satirical or fake (depending of your views) news article you encounter on unfamiliar sites until you conduct a fact check<\/a> on Google.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

News regarding a person<\/h2>\n

This prank became popular in the 2000s and it still exists \u2013 there are generators of fake news for a specific person. A generator typically allows users to provide a victim\u2019s name along with other data to create a convincing-looking news article: \u201cvictim gained 100 lbs on hamburger diet\u201d, \u201cdonated 20 TB of porn to public library\u201d, etc.<\/p>\n

If you read news about yourself, it\u2019s almost certainly a prank. It\u2019s easy to check \u2013 select the address bar of your browser and remove everything except the domain name of the \u201cnews\u201d site. Most likely you\u2019ll be taken to an input form allowing you to generate fake news about yourself.<\/p>\n

\"april1-prank\"<\/a>\u00a0\"april1-paper\"<\/a><\/p>\n

News regarding your money<\/h2>\n

On a more serious note, this kind of fake site functions 24\/7\/365 and is very, very dangerous. I\u2019m talking about fake sites of banks, payment systems and financial institutions. Your introduction to these sites might start with a surprising or alarming email: your loan has been approved, there\u2019s a suspicious transaction on your account, you\u2019ve received a payment, your card is blocked, etc. Typically, this letter doesn\u2019t contain any details. To get more info, you must click a link and enter your name, password and maybe a card number on a bank website. However, there is a tiny detail that is still important. The link takes you to a fake site instead of a real one. It looks exactly the same, but sends all the information you entered to cybercriminals instead of your bank. This kind of scam is called phishing<\/a> and it\u2019s very widespread nowadays. Fraudsters also fake sites of large online shops, booking sites, Internet giants (Facebook,Gmail, iCloud, etc.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite easy to spot phishing letters and sites, you just have to pay attention to specific details:<\/p>\n