What is URL Spoofing?

URL spoofing is creating a fake or forged URL that impersonates a legitimate and secure website.

The spoofed URL or website address looks precisely like the original and safe URL but redirects all the traffic to a ‘booby trapped’ website.

Such websites and forged URLs are primarily used in cybercrimes such as identity theft, phishing, and scams. The forged or spoofed URL is sent to as many target victims as possible through different means, including emails, texts, and instant messaging.

Forged URLs are also posted on other websites that are not harmful but contain spoofed and forged links that would eventually lead the user to a dangerous website.

A slightly different version of URL spoofing is one in which the attacker creates a fake and forged URL and builds a website that looks exactly like the original website.

This URL spoofing attack can be potentially more harmful and dangerous because the website looks exactly like the original one.

The website asks you to enter your username, password, credit card number, or whatever information the attacker wants to extract using that spoofed URL.

Spoofed URLs of banking or eCommerce websites could lead to heavy financial losses.

Websites also use spoofed URLs to track visitors and traffic on their websites. In this case, the copied URL is the address of the webpage which contains the link to the website. This kind of URL spoofing is legitimate and is known as a URL referer.