Beware Of Tab Napping: New Phishing Technique

I have recently wrote a post on all the techniques of phishing and how to detect these phishing techniques. You can read the post on phishing techniques by clicking here. As people were becoming more and more aware of these traditional phishing techniques and it was becoming difficult for the scammers to cheat people using these phishing techniques so they invented a new technique called “Tab Napping”. This is one of the most intelligent and wise methods of phishing and it not easily detected by a normal internet user until and unless he is aware of this phishing technique.

What is Tab Napping?

Tab napping is new type of phising scam that does not require you to click on any url to redirect you to the phishing site instead it relies on the fact that a lot of people used tabbed browsing (Opening multiple tabs while browsing). In tab napping one of your inactive tab is automatically replaced by with a new tab without your knowledge. For example one of your inactive tab in which you have opened your bank’s website will be automatically replaced with the phishing site of your bank and you will be asked to enter your username and password. You might think you have been signed out or never logged in but when you will enter the details again it will be sent to the scammer.

How To Detect And Protect Yourself From Tab Napping

Here are the simple and easy steps with which you can detect this new phishing technique “Tab Napping”.

• Don’t open another tab when your are working with your banking site or any other secure business-website instead open new windows using CTRL+N.
• Always check the url address of the website if you return from another tab. (Fake page will have different Url)
• Check that the url has secure address “https://“ or a big green bar in front of the url in address bar which certifies that it is secure and certified website.
• If you find anything suspicious close the tab and type and open the website in new Tab.