Someone sent me a link. I didn't click it. I investigated it instead.

This happened today.

I received an unexpected email encouraging me to move the conversation to an external website and create an account.

Instead of clicking, I verified the link.

Here's what I found:

🔎 VirusTotal: Multiple security vendors, including Fortinet and alphaMountain.ai, flagged the URL as phishing.

🔎 urlscan.io: The URL revealed a redirect chain involving tracking infrastructure, rather than simply taking me where the message suggested.

🔎 WHOIS/RDAP: The domain was registered in December 2025, used privacy-protected registration, and was sitting behind Cloudflare.

Interestingly, it also had a valid HTTPS certificate.

And that's an important lesson:

HTTPS does not mean a website is trustworthy.

Neither does Cloudflare.

Neither does a professional-looking website.

You need to look at the whole picture.

In this case, the unsolicited message + pressure to register + phishing detections + suspicious redirects were enough evidence for one decision:

I didn't click.

My simple rule:

STOP → INSPECT → VERIFY → DECIDE

Useful tools:

• VirusTotal for reputation and security detections • urlscan.io for URL behaviour and redirects • WHOIS/RDAP for domain registration information

You don't need to be a cybersecurity expert to develop this habit.

The next time an unexpected link lands in your inbox, don't ask:

"Should I click it?"

Ask:

"What evidence do I have that I should?"

Verify first. Click later.

#Cybersecurity #DigitalSafety #TekliniTechnologies