https address shortcut.at/CVZ58?GSd=PERgnHQ6r6

RiittaW

Has anyone come across with this link? My husband got a message to his mobile with that link and he clicked it. Nothing further happened, just blank page, like it got stuck. Any experiences?

Ukko

Hello,

I've never seen this URL before, but as a general rule it's always a good idea to not open "suspicious" or unexpectedly received URLs.

Some points around:

HTTPS as such does not indicate any security status of the page content itself. What this means more is that the connection to the site is encrypted (cannot be easily snooped on by someone who has access to the network being used).

Therefore, it is better to consider the “security” of the received URL from the perspective of: who sent it, in what circumstances, and so on. Let's say, if this is some company known to you and you somehow receive messages from them (with your consent), then most often they will use their own domain for shortened URLs rather than some publicly available URL shortening service.

But even if not, you can try to use the same or related public services to understand what is behind this shortened URL. Of course, if it is not assumed that the information sent is exclusive or confidential.

You put a 'tricky' URL into a form and then get additional information about the 'landed' page (destination). However, I do not use any such services and therefore do not know which of them could be reliable. Accordingly, I cannot recommend anything specific. On the other hand, there is a well-known resource called VirusTotal (https://www.virustotal.com/). Which can be used in a similar way.

Additionally, F-Secure recently demonstrated a special tool to check if a text message is a scam: https://www.f-secure.com/en/text-message-checker (← available there)

What about the point of "nothing happened" or blank pages. There could be many reasons for this. The page no longer exists, has been replaced or something like that. If it was a huge spam campaign - then a lot of complaints and abuses could already be addressed. However, other reasons could be that the server dynamically determines which device or OS should 'see' which content. Let’s say that users with mobile devices will not receive anything, desktop users with Windows 10 will also be “safe”, but for Windows 7 users it will try to implement something additional using some exploit of a known vulnerability for this system; or another option - a specific one web browser build or type. And any other variations (including location, time). So, it is better just do not open anything if you are not sure 'why you received it'. Or carefully try to check legitimacy and things behind it.

Thanks!