Be SUPER careful whenever you search!
There are two things you should never search for and that is support and drivers. Many people have gotten in serious trouble by searching for these. The reason? Criminals and scammers know that people will search for things like HP Printer Support, Canon Printer Support, Dell Support, Display drivers, printer drivers, and so on. These search terms are full of danger for you. Why? Because the unscrupulous know you will be searching for these things and will make ad buys on search engines so their scummy ads will show up on your search results. Once you click on one you could well find yourself in a trap or worse think you’re on a legitimate site when you’re not.
If you need help with your printer, type in the site’s web address, for instance, http://www.hp.com/ or https://www.canon.com. If you need help, click on support, If you need support for Windows, don’t go searching for Microsoft support. Go to www.microsoft.com and click on support – or get help right from your PC. If you need drivers don’t search for anything using the word drivers. If you have an NVidia display adapter that you need drivers for, go to NVidia’s web site. If you need help with a Dell computer, go to Dell’s web site.
If you must search for anything having to do with a driver or product support, remember this – only the name before the dot.com or dot.net or dot.org or dot.biz, or dot.tv, etc. in a URL (website address) is the actual domain.
For instance, the following web address is not for Dell support: dell.support.geeksrus.com.
It is not a Dell site at all – it’s a geekrus site.
Likewise, mircosoft.support.wegotcha.com is not a Microsoft site – it’s a wegotcha site, and if you click on a link like that, believe me, they gotcha!
Let’s take a test:
1.) Which of the following 3 URLs belongs to Microsoft?
A. www.microsoft.support.com
B. www.support.microsoft.com
C. www.microsoft.windows-support.com
Answer? Only “B” is a Microsoft Site.
2.) Which of the following belong to HP?
A. www.hp.com
B. www.support.hp.com
C. www.hp-drivers.softonic.com
D. www.hp-printer.drivers.com
If you said “A” and “B” you’re right. Both A and B are HP sites. C and D are not. If you learn how to read a URL you’re on the way to safer browsing – and searching.
Be careful what you search for and learn how to read URLs (Web site addresses). Always pay attention to the words/names right before the dot com, dot net, dot. org, etc. in a URL (website address).
Excellent search tip…..especially the part of “only the URL part before the dot.com is the actual site”.
Thanks for all these “stay out of harm’s way” tips…..you guys are the greatest !!
Funny you should mention HP printer support. Yes I got stung on this very issue and it cost me over $285.00 U.S and then it cost me down time on my computer as I had to take it into my local computer tech store to have it completely cleaned of any hidden things inside of the hard drive. That cost me $100.00 Canadian and then it was suggested by the computer tech that I change all of our banking info and get new credit cards and so on. I took it to the police and seeing as I paid by my credit card, I just needed to send all of the info to them from the police and from the computer tech store and I had my credit card refunded of the money I paid to these scammers. To this day, which is almost over two years, that same outfit (the Scammers), still calls me saying they want to refund my money to me but they need my credit card number. So yes, I was one of their marks and there is also another lady living here in this area who got taken as well.
Great info! I will definitely remember the tip about looking for the domain right before the dot.com or dot. whatever. The info y’all share with us is always invaluable!