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Written by Linzi Cooper
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Thursday, 10 June 2010 14:48 |
I've just read an article about a new online scam referred to as 'Tab Napping'.
Basically, if you have more than one tab open at a time, it is apparently possible for fraudsters to detect when a tab has been inactive for a while. So whilst you are merrily working away on something else on your screen with several internet page tabs open in the background, the fraudster can add malicious code to make that page look almost identical to the original one you were working on.
So, if you were logged into your bank account for example, then opened up another tab to perhaps login to your Twitter account, then a few moments later you returned to your bank account page, you may have to re-login (which is very common when you leave your bank account inactive for security reasons) but what you could be doing unknowingly is giving your security details to the fraudster on their fake page. Once you have entered these security details you are then redirected back to your original bank account page since you never actually logged out in the first place and you will know nothing about what has just happened.
Sounds very scary. So, always be vigilent when online and follow these tips to help you stay cyber safe:
- Always check the URL (website address) for auth to ensure it has https:// before the www.
- If the URL looks unusual in anyway, close down the tab and start again. A fake tabbed page will have a different URL address to the website you think you're using.
- Never leave tabs open where you type in login/security details. Stay on the page and then close it when finished before opening up new tabs.
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