How to spot and stay safe from hidden homoglyph online tricks

Cyber safety experts are warning internet users to watch out for sneaky online tricks known as homoglyph attacks. In this type of digital trap, bad actors create fake web addresses that look almost identical to real, trusted websites by swapping out normal English letters for special characters from other alphabets. Because these fake letters look the same to the human eye, people often type them in or click them without realizing they are walking into a trap. These hidden tricks are often used in phishing emails or fake login pages to steal personal data, passwords, and banking details. To stay safe, experts advise people to always double-check the web address in the browser bar, avoid clicking strange links sent in sudden messages, and use password managers that automatically fill in the correct, trusted links instead of typing them out by hand.