Welcome to TabNapping.co.uk. On this page you'll find information relating to tab napping and phishing. If you want information on other types of online frauds and scams, please visit my other website at www.scam-info-links.info, if you want more info on the old way of phishing, visit www.whatisphishing.co.uk
Tab napping is a new form of phishing that is hitting the internet now. With the conventional form of phishing, for example, you might receive an email that is supposedly from your bank, and it might ask you to login and update or confirm your account details, of course, there would be a link to your banks website in the email for you to click, which would take you to a page that looks identical to your real banks login page.
The problem is that the website is completely fake and operated by phishers, with the sole purpose of getting you to input your bank login username and password and/or other personal details, from which they can then access your online banking services to clear all of the money out of your account, it also leaves you open to ID Theft
How Does Tab Napping Work?
Tab napping is far more sophisticated than the traditional forms of phishing scams we’ve been used to, and the phisher is no longer reliant on tricking you in to clicking on a fake link in an email. Tab napping targets internet users who tend to have a lot of browser tabs open at the same time.
So, how does tab napping work to gain your details? What happens is that if you have multiple tabs open and you are reading the page on your current active tab, any of the other inactive browser tabs could be replaced with a fake web page that is set up to obtain your personal data, the web page will look exactly the same as the page you opened in the tab, you probably wont even even know it has been replaced with a fake page.
This may surprise you, but phishers and fraudsters in general can actually detect when a tab has been left inactive for a period of time, which means they can spy on your browsing history, this tells them which websites and web pages you visit on a regularly basis, so they'll know which bank you use and which email account you use, whatever you view, they'll know about it, which means they'll know which fake pages to make to replace the real pages in your inactive tabs, you've now left yourself open to become a victim of tab napping.
It would be unsafe for you to assume that once you've opened and visited a web page on a new tab, that the web page will remain the same as it was when you first opended the tab, in the event that you don’t return to that tab for some time whilst browsing other open tabs. A tab left open for an amount of time can be replaced by malicious code on the web page you that opened, replacing it with a fake page which will look pretty much identical to the real legitimate web page you had originally opened in the tab. You can see a video explanation of tab napping on the Vimeo site here: A New Type of Phishing Attack
How To Prevent Tab Napping
Whilst tab napping can sound frightening for people browsing the web, there are some steps you can take to avoid falling victim to this new type of phishing scam:
When you return to a tab you previously opened, make sure you check the url in the browser address bar page is correct before you enter any of your login details, any hijacked tab web pages will have a fake page and will also have a different website address url from the legitimate website that you were initially using.
On a normal web page, you'll see http:// at the start of a website url, for login pages on sites like banks and email accounts, you'll see they start with https://, always check that any login page has a secure https:// at the start of the website address.
If you see any url that in any way looks suspicious or unlike the usual url for the site you are entering, simply close the tab, open a new one and enter the correct url that's known to you.
The easiest way to avoid tab napping is to avoid leaving tabs open and unviewed, especially tabs where you have to input your login details on the page. Personally, I don't use tabs whilst browsing, I always open a new window when I need to view somehting else, and if you do need to login anywhere, don't have any other tabs open whilst doing your online banking for example.
Lastly, have a a look at Online Banking and Bank Safe Online for ways in which to remain safe online and protect yourself from being scammed.
For more information on internet fraud, visit my main site at www.scam-info-links.info. If you have been a victim of fraud, or think that you might be being scammed at this present time, please go the Scam Warners Forum, they will be happy to give you any help and advice you require.
