Read an address nobody can dress up
Look at any web address and say, in about two seconds, whose machine it really is — however much of your bank’s name has been written into it.
Every web address has exactly one part that somebody had to buy, register and keep paying for. Everything else in it is free, and anybody may type anything they like there. Nearly every fake address in the world is built on that one fact.
Read the address from the left, and stop at the first single slash. Everything before that slash is the machine you are about to talk to. Everything after it is just a note to that machine about which page you want, and it proves nothing at all.
In fairbrookbank.com/accounts/login, the domain is fairbrookbank.com. In login.fairbrookbank.com, the domain is still fairbrookbank.com — login is a room inside a building the bank already owns. But in fairbrookbank.com.secure-signin.net, the domain is secure-signin.net, and your bank’s name is decoration painted on somebody else’s wall.
Key points
- Only the domain was ever bought — the two words either side of the last dot before the first single slash
- Words added on the left of the domain belong to whoever owns it; words added on the right are a different owner
- A hyphen makes a different domain, and anybody can register one this morning
- Everything after the first slash is a note about which page, and proves nothing about who
- When blue writing and the real address disagree, the real address is the one that happens
What to remember
- Length, hyphens and familiar words prove nothing. The two words either side of the last dot before the first slash are the whole answer.
- Blue writing is a label. The preview is the address. When they disagree, the preview is the one that happens.
- Hold, do not tap. A held link shows you its real address and goes nowhere until you say so.
Try this
Open any email from a company you genuinely deal with and hold one of its links down without pressing it. Read the address that appears, and find the last dot before the first slash. Do it three or four times and it stops being an exercise and becomes something you notice without trying.
Practice: Read an address nobody can dress up. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.