How to tell if a link in game is to a phishing site

Since this has been happening like crazy since the Make it Rain Campaign, that I've personally seen/been messaged by, lets talk about phishing links.

What are they?

They are sites specifically made to take your log in information, and possibly credit/debit card information.

What happens on those sites?

They make the site look as official as possible, and when you try to interact on posts on there you're required to log in.

By logging in you are giving them your full account information.

What happens if you give them your information?

They can log in to your account any time they please. They're also able to see your forum information as well.

Because you have to pick one of your characters to use as an avatar on the forum, they can also go to the lodestone and look at your public character information.

They also know what world your character(s) is/are on. By seeing that they can estimate what time zone you're more likely in (Usually by country) and they can plan to log in to your account during the most likely hours you will not be playing the game at.

What happens if they log in to my character?

They will go after anything of value on your character. Gil and items will be transfered off in multiple ways.

1. They will use another character they have control of and get you to trade all your valuable items to them.

2. They can have another account set up suspicious sale items on the marketboard. They do this by making a pretty cheap item listed for millions of gil and making you buy it.

3. They will see if you're part of a free company and see if you have permissions in the Free Company Storage and take anything of value (Crystals/Gil/materials/ect)

4. They will see that a character doesn't have much at all/they've taken everything and then use that character to send phishing website links to other players in game. All they need is one person to click their link and put in their information for this to start all over again.

5. Your account could become a 'sleeper account'. This is where they have all your log in information, and they will periodically check in on your character to see if your character has become more valuable. Then they rob your account.


What you can do to protect yourself?

KNOW WHAT A WEBSITE LINK LOOKS LIKE!!!!

Phishing sites usually have a VERY similar URL. But you need to know the small differences.

Example: I use https://forum.square-enix.com/ to get to the forums because I'm in the US.

The phishers would keep it VERY close to the URL by adding very small things like making the site URL like this -> forum.square-enix.com.us

This won't raise many flags for people who take links for granted.

This is the most common way others will click a link thinking it's harmless.


THEY WILL ALSO USE HOT TOPICS TO MAKE PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO CLICK THE LINKS!!!

Stuff like the following I've personally seen -

Don't let SE change the game for the worse! Go to the forum to voice your opinion <URL LINK HERE>

Giving away 300m gil! Go to the forum and post 1-30 <URL LINK HERE>


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Just PLEASE familiarize yourself with whatever you use, and check everything carefully before clicking ANY link.

Also, if you get a URL from random people in game you've never talked to, just DO NOT CLICK IT.


Please spread the word about this kind of thing to everyone you know.

What if they're trying to reach me about my cars extended warranty?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kyrj

What if they're trying to reach me about my cars extended warranty?

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lol

That one always amuses me, because I get those calls and I don't even actually own a vehicle. For me it is so obviously a scam that it hurts. But I'm guessing if they didn't get people to bite they wouldn't keep doing what they're doing.

How to tell if a link in game is to a phishing site:

1) It's a link
2) It's not in the welcome message

Easy. Assume all links received ingame are links to a phising site. Come on people, the internet's been around for almost 40 years. Be smart.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lezard21

How to tell if a link in game is to a phishing site:

1) It's a link
2) It's not in the welcome message

Easy. Assume all links received ingame are links to a phising site. Come on people, the internet's been around for almost 40 years. Be smart.

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Wait so there's not hot singles in my area who want to meet?

There's not 18 million dollars waiting for you to pick up, either. Sorry you had to find out this way.

iam not sure why people still fall for phishing attempts when 99% of them are so obvious, also get an authenticator for your account (preferably the physical one) though the mobile one works just as well

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ryouma17

iam not sure why people still fall for phishing attempts when 99% of them are so obvious, also get an authenticator for your account (preferably the physical one) though the mobile one works just as well

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The authenticator helps but a lot of phishing websites will also ask for your authentication code, so it won't necessarily protect people from these scams.

I posted this filter on another thread.

||square-enix.com*^
@@||square-enix.com^

To be used with content blockers like Ublock Origin or Adblock Plus. That might be useful.

Astonishingly comprehensive write up OP.
Nice post~

B-but what if this 999m gil giveaway is actually for real this time!!1!

If something looks too good to be true, there's a high chance that it is. It's good to not trust links from random strangers on principle.

unironically just use autofill password
it wont autofill on phishing sites so you can never get haxxed that way
the haxxor has to literally trojan your computer to get the pass and even then they probably need to send screenshots to their server because the browser protects the pass
you can also let your browser generate some soulless random numbers for your password that never get brute forced by gold farmers

They don't go after your items. What the heck are they going to do with it? Take the time to list it on the marketboard for sale?
Nah, what they are after is your gil and to see if you are in an FC with access to the FC's gil too.
They use the victims account to log into the game with the hacked account, world visit to another server and send mass tells of the same luring statement that the poor victim clicked on prior. This is usually after they have wipe you clean of gil and maybe the FC's gil too.
This is an RMT operation to steal easy gil to offer up for sale to players who could care less how they come by their gil in game, even if it's breaks the ToS.

Thanks for the informative post.

Generally never click any links from anyone unless you know them, and even then I recommend not doing it for games you have an account for.

Anyone else getting calls from UK +44 when in reality they come from Indian sweatshops?

Those are spoofed no?

This sort of scam has happened for a lot longer than that. It must have been happening for 1-2 years now. It's not likely to be useful to most people who read the forums (veterans) because the scam is targeted at very new and curious players who don't understand the game and what is normal (like being sent random tells). It's also likely to be pushed to other pages in the General category as new posts get made.

SE made an official announcement about the phishers on Lodestone semi-recently, but it still lacks the visibility needed to do much in preventing it.

Perhaps adding a brief "Be wary of links from other players" message to the initial log-in announcements might improve that.

also official links from the devs in game only ever use the specific Square Enix short url sqex.to if I remember correctly.

Don't follow in game links

while this thread is full of great information, and the OP has a well thought out post...

1. people come here to get sympathy only AFTER they have clicked the link in game.
2. most players of online games NEVER enter or read the forums
3. while I often question this, most forum people likely already know links in games are bad.

Great post though, only wish more people used their brains....