Last Updated on March 27, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake
A malicious website either has malware, a phishing (social engineering) scam or is an illegitimate website.
Types of Malicious Websites
- Malware Sites
Malware is any scam that uses software developed to maliciously attack a computer. If a site has malware, it means that it has malicious software that it installs on your computer. Some examples include Trojans, adware, browser hijackers, Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs), spyware, keyloggers, computer viruses, ransomware, and computer worms. There are numerous other types of malware that are software. - Phishing Scam Sites
A malicious site may also have a phishing scam associated with it. Phishing is a social engineering scam that doesn’t install software on your computer but rather tricks you into downloading, signing up, or using a scam to deceive people into revealing sensitive information. One of the most common phishing attacks is the common tech support scam. - Online Shopping Scam Sites
Online shopping scams are an easy way for scammers to hand over their credit card details. It is one of the reasons you should always shop with PayPal or similar services. - Scareware Sites
Scareware sites use fake alerts to scare you into thinking there is a problem with your computer that needs solving. Tech support scams are a common form of scareware. - Illigitimate Sites
It can be difficult to identify an online scam because the scammers are in control of the feedback left on their sites. It also becomes very difficult to rely solely on the feedback of everyday people who are not experts in cybersecurity. Sometimes people leave unjustified negative feedback as well because they didn’t understand a service properly and so on. This is where the added benefit of having some technical analysis comes into play. We have cybersecurity professionals who listen to feedback and who can help identify scam websites and this is one of the measures that is built into their malware scan results. The online malware scanners we use to assess websites come with phishing scams and illegitimate scam sites built into the results. Illegitimate sites are identified as malicious or blacklisted in our malware scans.
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