Why We’re Still Fooled by Low-Tech Internet Scams
A recent spate of web address exploits shows us we need to build up our web literacies
Two weeks ago, some Florida drivers found themselves at an online shop selling Trump merchandise instead of the county clerk’s pay site when they tried to pay their ticket for a minor violation. A flyer that police had been handing out contained a misspelled web address for the county clerk’s office. People attempting to pay their ticket had unknowingly typed in the incorrect URL missing a hyphen and were sent to a drop-shipping site featuring Trump paraphernalia.
Scooping up similar URLs and phone numbers hoping for an error is a pretty classic exploit. So is buying a misspelling and pointing it where you want. Some of us remember when Seinfeld’s Kramer had the phone number 555-FILK, one button off from the fictional Moviefone number, and decided to help people with their film recommendations.
Basic internet literacy is taken for granted because the web basically works. But that confidence makes us really vulnerable to some very low-level exploits. URL hacks are still one of the easiest ways to get…
