The story is all too common. You hear about a friend who was driving on auto-pilot … wasn’t really paying attention and wasn’t flicking a glance at his/her mirrors on a regular basis. BLAMMM! Another car takes them out from the side. When you drive and ‘space out’, you’re way more likely to get into an accident. (I know, I’m not your Mother. Sorry if that sounds a little preachy. Stay with me for a bit.)
Well, the world of social media is frought with it’s own potholes, distractions, and yes, even %#$@ drivers. Here’s a flickr post from @DaveDelaney;
Note that the page LOOKS and feels like a Twitter login page. Take a closer look at the URL in the address bar at the top. It’s NOT Twitter. It’s bogus. It’s a page trying to phish for your Twitter credentials. I know this is Interwebs 101 for most of you, but every now and again, I like to nudge people’s brains with these kinds of tidbits just to keep everyone safe out there.
Just like your rear view mirror in your car…
Get into the good habit of flicking your eyes up to the address bar of your browser every now and again … especially if you’re about to fill out a form. If you’re really obsessive/paranoid/particular about this kind of stuff, right-click on the page to see if the form page is embedded inside of a frame or iframe. If you find that to be true, click on “display this frame in it’s own window” and check out the URL again when the screen refreshes. If it’s a phishing site, BAIL OUT!
FYI, You’ve been given this advice from a guy who’s had his social media left turn signal on for the past 10 miles!
