Re: How to check validity of suspicious looking SMS message text URL?

From	Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com>
Newsgroups	misc.phone.mobile.iphone, alt.os.linux, comp.mobile.android
Subject	Re: How to check validity of suspicious looking SMS message text URL?
Date	2016-09-22 20:46 -0700
Message-ID	<D409F3C2.7E1CA%usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> (permalink)
References	<ns2051$15hl$1@gioia.aioe.org> <D409E3CA.7E1AE%usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> <ns270n$qk6$1@news.mixmin.net>
Cross-posted to 3 groups.
Show all headers | View raw
On 9/22/16, 8:19 PM, in article ns270n$qk6$1@news.mixmin.net, "Horace
Algiers" <horace@horacealgiers.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Sep 2016 19:38:50 -0700, Snit wrote:
> 
>>     How to preview shortened URLs?
>>     You can find out what is the destination address (expand a short
>>     link) and view to where the link will redirect without going to
>>     the final destination. Just add "/expand/" to the short link
>>     address. Example: http://bit.do/expand/shortlink
>>     -----
>>     
>> So in the case of yours go to http://bit.do/expand/cBuHr
>> 
>> That will tell you:
>>     -----
>>     Short link: http://bit.do/[REDACTED]
>>     Redirects to: http://www.[redacted].com/
>>     -----
>>     
>> From there I went to: <http://whois.domaintools.com/rbusvv.com>
>> 
>> Gives you some info and a screen shot. There is also info on them online:
>> 
>> <http://www.scamadviser.com/is-rbusv.com-a-fake-site.html>
>>     -----
>>     Low Trust Rating. This Site May Not Be Safe to Use.
>>     -----
>> 
>> I think I would avoid it. :)
> 
> Thank you for both *understanding* the question, and for being *helpful* in
> your response, especially since everyone can benefit from your advice.

Most URL shortners have this ability. Not all though.

> I did not know about the *expand* option, so I just tried it on a tinyurl:
>  http://tinyurl.com/alt-os-linux
>  http://tinyurlcom/expand/alt-os-linux
> 
> Hmmm... it did not seem to work.
> It reported nothing, when it should have reported:
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.os.linux

You can enable previews for ALL tinyurl links:

<http://tinyurl.com/preview.php>
    -----
    Don't want to be instantly redirected to a TinyURL and instead
    want to see where it's going before going to the site? Not a
    problem with our preview feature.
    -----

But as I looked for that I found this:

<http://www.getlinkinfo.com>

Works great... I will have to remember that. And below I see you found it,
too.

> To test if the "expand" only works with "bit.do" URLs, I created this:
> Short URL: http://bit.do/alt-os-linux 
> Traffic stats:  http://bit.do/alt-os-linux-
> Which should point to that Google Groups URL for alt.os.linux.
> http://i.cubeupload.com/loFJs7.jpg
> 
> Once created, I tried the *expand* option with bit.do to get:
> http://bit.do/expand/alt-os-linux
> 
> Which did work by reporting:
>   Short link: http://bit.do/alt-os-linux
>   Redirects to: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.os.linux
> 
> So, thanks for the "expand" option for bit.do; now we need the same option
> for tinyurl.com.

They have one as well.

> Googling, I found this site: http://www.getlinkinfo.com/
> And entering the tinyurl http://tinyurl.com/alt-os-linux, it reported a
> decent amount of good stuff about that shortened URL.
> 
> Looking at your whois link was interesting, but didn't show scamming:
> http://whois.domaintools.com/rbusvv.com
> 
> But looking at your scam advisor site, there is a ton of conflicting info:
> http://www.scamadviser.com/is-rbusv.com-a-fake-site.html
> 
> For example, the WHOIS implicates Las Vegas and CN but the *addresses* in
> China are oddly European:
>  Admin Name: Helmut Kohl
>  Admin Organization: Helmut Kohl
>  Admin Street: 78 Messegel auml nde Neue Messe
>  Admin State/Province: Freistaat Bayern
>  Admin Postal Code: 81477
>  Admin Country: CN
>  Admin Phone: +86.004908209145
>  Admin Email: blucemall@gmail.com
> So I suspect the *address* doesn't exist in China.
> 
> Conflictingly, the scam advisor web site tells us the site is in Turkey but
> most likely in China.
> 
> Here is their analysis:
> Website: rbusv.com
> Title: Fashion Sunglasses Online Sales, Fashion Sunglasses Online Sales
> Description: Fashion Sunglasses Online Sales
> 
> Domain Age: 0 Days
> Website Speed: Average
> 
> Organisation: huiru li
> Owner: huiru li
> Owner Address: an yang shi zheng da dong lu 9985 hao
> Owner City: anyangshi
> Owner Postcode: 351100
> Phone Number: +86.18403310655  [China]
> Phone Type: generic:
> Email: 2926033044@qq.com  [China] Related to 14 sites
> 
> Owner Country : China  [China]
> Website Location  : Turkey  [Turkey]
> 
> Probable website origin :-
>  80%;   [China]  China
>  14%;   [United States]  United States
>  6%;   [Turkey]  Turkey
> 
> Notes:-
> [Alert Result] Registered contact email address is a free one
> [Alert Result] Technical contact email address is a free one
> [Alert Result] Administrative contact email address is a free one
> [Alert Result] This registrar is used by a high % of spammers and fraud
> sites
> [Alert Result] This website may be related to a number of high risk sites
> [Alert Result] This website may be related to a number of high risk sites
> [Alert Result] This website is 0 Days old
> [Alert Result] The website expected life (364 days) is relatively short.
> [Alert Result] This website setup involves countries known to be high risk
> [Alert Result] This website is likely to be operating from a high risk
> country
> 
> Analysis Details:-
> 
> This site has a high risk country associated with it. This may be as you
> expect but care should be taken if purchasing an item from a site that you
> didn't expect to be associated with the countries listed above. Certain
> countries are listed as being high risk because of the high percentage of
> online fraud or tendency to send fake/replica items.
> 
> Free email addresses have been used in the setup of this website. This is
> not necesarily worrying, depending on the site. For online shops, this can
> be a sign that the site has some risk
> 
> 



-- 
* OS X / Linux: What is a file?     <http://youtu.be/_dMbXGLW9PI>
* Mint MATE Trash, Panel, Menu:     <http://youtu.be/C0y74FIf7uE>
* Mint KDE working with folders:    <http://youtu.be/7C9nvniOoE0>
* Mint KDE creating files:          <http://youtu.be/N7-fZJaJUv8>
* Mint KDE help:                    <http://youtu.be/3ikizUd3sa8>
* Mint KDE general navigation:      <http://youtu.be/t9y14yZtQuI>
* Mint KDE bugs or Easter eggs?     <http://youtu.be/CU-whJQvtfA>
* Easy on OS X / Hard on Linux:     <http://youtu.be/D3BPWANQoIk>
* OS / Word Processor Comparison:   <http://youtu.be/w6Qcl-w7s5c>
Thread

csiph-web