How to protect yourself against fake websites (aka “spoofing”)

At Qtrade Direct Investing, your security is our top priority. With the evolving threat of cybercrime, we take every measure to keep your account secure and safeguard your confidential information. However, you play a vital role in preventing and reporting unauthorized account activity. If you suspect you’ve interacted with a fake website or received a suspicious message:

1. Change your password immediately.
2. Contact us at : 1.877.787.2330

What is “spoofing”?

Spoofing is an online crime where victims are deceived into giving sensitive information, money or access to their accounts or personal devices. Spoofing is often associated fake websites, but there can be other sources that criminals use to spoof, such as email, text message, social pages and even phone calls.

Cybercriminals disguise fake websites or other communication sources to make them appear legitimate. They are attempting to use real-looking sites and pages to get victims to share personal or financial information, to download viruses or malware, or to send money.

How does spoofing work?

Deception is at the heart of spoofing. Because the attacker assumes a brand or identity that you might trust, you are more likely to succumb to their requests. The driving factor of this deception is trust. By posing as legitimate individuals and organizations, cybercriminals lower their target’s skepticism.

A criminal might create a website that looks almost exactly the same as your bank’s website. Even the URL will look very similar, with perhaps a very small spelling change. For example, the use of a zero “0” versus an “O”, or using a different ending, such as “.co” instead of “.com”. Criminals count on victims seeing the familiar brand and design, hoping that they’ll enter banking information without noticing that the malicious website is not real.

How to spot a spoof

A spoofed website or message often looks quite real, like  the trusted site you’re familiar with. But if you’re paying attention, there are usually subtle signs that the message or website is fake. Beware if:

• It’s from a sender you don’t recognize – make sure you hover your cursor over the sender’s email address or website URL to see it in full
• You find spelling or grammatical errors
• The website or email address has extra or misplaced characters, or uses unusual symbols or fonts
• The request is for personal or financial information

How to protect yourself from spoofing and fake websites

The best defence is vigilance. Many spoofing threats are difficult to identify, especially in the era of artificial intelligence. You best defense is to pay close attention.

• If you’re unsure about using an online communication or website, verify that it’s real. You can contact the organization using their official contact info (on a different web search). Don’t use the links or contact info on the possibly fake site or message.
• Pay attention while you’re online. If something looks wrong, double check that it’s real.

Resources

Here are more information and tips on keeping your account secure and protecting yourself from online fraud:

• Important Internet Safety Precautions
• Government of Canada’s Anti-Fraud Centre

Read more about Qtrade’s security guarantee and find out how we safeguard your personal and financial information.