Copycat Guardian site used by loan company to boost its credibility
by Patrick Collinson and Miles Brignall The Guardian, Friday 18 July 2014
It looks virtually identical to a conventional online page of the Guardian – the same layout, typography, links to other sections, and comments below the line. The story, with Money reporter Miles Brignall's byline, gives a glowing account of a company called Business Grants & Loans. But the page is entirely fake, hosted on a copycat website and apparently designed by fraudsters to give the impression that the company has won independent endorsement from the Guardian – and to lure victims into handing over hundreds of pounds each.
Until now, fake websites have tended to be clones of bank websites or institutions such as HM Revenue & Customs. Conmen send out "phishing" emails which convince people to click through to the bank, but, in reality, they are taken through to the copycat website designed to illegally capture log-ins and password details.
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Userlevel 7
Good article Guardian web page I have on numerous occasions read their articles but thank heavens to date have not been subjected to a fake one............once again you can't be to careful on today's web.
Userlevel 7
+56
That is a new twist on fake sites - using them for reputation management instead of hacking. Will be interesting to see where this goes.
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