To get people to download malware or provide personal information, hackers use a variety of techniques to direct people to phishing sites. But spotting one of them is almost impossible if you don't know about it.

Phishing sites are designed to closely resemble the legitimate site they are trying to impersonate. From using company logos and language to copying the entire layout of the site, phishing sites have gone a long way toward appearing legitimate.

To get people to click on these fake sites in the first place, hackers often use social engineering to try to instill a sense of urgency in phishing emails. However, now that most people access the Internet via smartphones, hackers are beginning to use text messages and chat applications to contact potential victims.

Links in messages or emails from unknown senders should never be clicked, but if the link looks legitimate at first glance, some users will click on it even though it is not the correct URL to begin with.

The attack method described here is known as a homonym attack, since similar letters and numbers are called homonyms.

In a blog post on the subject (opens in new tab), Malwarebytes provides several examples, such as the small Latin letter "o" and the number zero "0." A few years ago, a hacker might have been able to trick someone into clicking on "g00gle.com," but now such simple letter swaps are easily detected.

These days, hackers can pull off this trick in more convincing ways, using international domain names. For example, look at the following two URLs and try to guess which one is correct:

If you guessed the first one, you are correct. These two versions of Citibank's website look very similar at first, but upon closer inspection you may notice that the letter "a" distinguishes them. The difference here is that the first URL uses the small Latin letter "a," while the URL below it uses the lowercase Cyrillic letter "a."

Hackers and other cybercriminals often register fake domains that are almost identical to a company's actual website, but use look-alike letters in one different language. Hackers "www.amazon.com”,」ではなく「www.amozon.com”」と入力してサイトのアドレスを間違えた人を餌食にするタイポスクワッティングとは異なり、ホモグラフ攻撃は、多くの人がURLを確認する前にリンクをクリックしたりタップしたりするため、より多くの潜在的な被害者を惹きつける。

The easiest way to protect yourself from this type of attack is to avoid clicking on links whenever possible. This is because hackers are now also using advertising as a weapon to direct users to fake sites. In fact, the problem has gotten so bad that even the FBI now recommends the use of ad blockers.

At the same time, one should carefully observe every link one clicks: in Google Chrome, one can simply hover over a link and its URL will appear in the lower left corner of the browser window. For further inspection, you can also copy the web address from the link and paste it into a text editor such as Microsoft Word.

Cybercrime will install the best antivirus software on your computer or, in addition to most antivirus software, provide you with access to password managers, VPNs, and other useful tools, like It is as much a booming business as ever, which is why you should consider upgrading to one of the Internet security suites.

Spoofed URLs, especially those using Cyrillic and other foreign alphabets, can be quite difficult to spot, but at least you know that they are one of the most popular tools in a hacker's arsenal.

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