Homograph attack

A homograph attack uses letters from other alphabets that look identical to normal ones, to build a web address that seems exactly like the real one.

Homograph attack: A homograph attack uses characters that look the same but are different, such as a Cyrillic letter that resembles an English a. The attacker builds a web address that appears identical to a real brand, even when you read it carefully, while it leads to another site.

Web addresses can include letters from many languages. That is useful, but it lets a scammer register a name where one or two letters come from another alphabet. In some fonts it is impossible for the eye to tell. Simple cases use the digit zero for the letter o, or a capital i for a small L. Even experts cannot always spot the difference by eye, so there is no shame in letting a tool check it for you.

Modern browsers show suspicious names in a coded form to warn you, but not always. The safest rule is that you do not judge an address by looking at it when money is involved. Use the official app or a bookmark, and run unknown links through a checker before opening them. Bookmarks and official apps are free and take away the whole problem.

Tips

• Never trust a link only because it looks right; use a bookmark or the official app.
• Be careful with addresses that contain the digit 0 or 1 in place of letters.
• Paste the link into a link checker before opening it.

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