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

[weebtext]

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

[Saraide]

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.

[_Pigzig]

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

[Arazehl]

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.

[Shin96]

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.

[Jin-]

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

[AkaeiNox]

Those are spoofed no?

[Jeeqbit]

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.

[KageTokage]

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.

[DrWho2010]

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