If you receive an email like the one below it is full of hidden URL Web Links.
The first thing I do whenever I receive an email is check the email address it is from. I do not care about the “friendly” name of “TechRepublic News & Special Offers” because the friendly name can be faked and bear no resemblance to the email address of
newsletter@techrepublic.online.com.
If we look at the bottom right-hand side of the email we will see multiple “clickable” links:
As can be seen there are lots of links but no http:// viewable for us to check its validity. Each of the links:
All have hidden Internet links behind them and hidden from view. This is to make it easier for the user to click on the link they are interested in not matter what website it goes to.
So, what if I did not trust this email and I wanted to view what websites these links would take me to? This can be don quite easily and allows you to ensure the ‘http://” link shown belongs to the company the email originated from.
Firstly, move you mouse over the link in the email. The following will appear. For this example, I have moved my mouse over the Green “See more from TechRepublic Premium” link:
As can be seen the web link is shown and it matches the company, I received the email from by checking the domain name “techrepublic.com”. You could therefore assume this is a safe link to click.
If you wanted to check link anyway you will need to copy and paste into the Netech Web Link Checker at:
Virus Check (netech.biz)To copy the link, continue to have you mouse over the link and right-click.
This allows you to select the Copy Hyperlink option (never select Open or Select), This copy action will place the link into the computer’s temporary “Clipboard” which allows you to paste it later into the Link Checker.
Remove any text from the “Check URL for viruses” box and right-click on the empty box.
You are then presented with a “Paste” Option. Select Paste and the link will be populated.
Click the green Scan button and wait for the results. This will open a new web window and the result will look like:
** Notice *** The Link Checker can never be 100% perfect. Therefore, rely on it at your own risk.
The Link Checker tries to detect malicious code on the website, it cannot check a phishing website that is trying to extract your email credentials for example. These are links to clean websites that capture your username and password.