The word “Clickbait” is probably familiar to you from having heard it on social networks or even in songs by famous singers. But what exactly does it mean?
It is a type of cyber-attack that consists of publishing on different Internet pages, including legal pages, false news or misleading advertising in the margins to get a lot of clicks. The tactic is to use pictures and headlines that attract a lot of attention, to get us, the Internet users, to click to get more information.
Several things can happen the instant you click:
- That a malicious program (malware) is installed on our computer, mobile or tablet, spying on everything we do with that device, extracting our most personal information or even damaging it with a virus and causing it to stop working properly.
- That redirects us to a fake web page, that although it looks like a company or legal entity (online store, bank or credit institution, social network, mailbox, etc.) it really is not.
- That we believe the content and fall into a disinformation trap that may affect our convictions or ideology. One of the most profitable bait for cybercriminals is the advertisement of miracle diets that make us lose weight effortlessly, super discounts on products, investment in unknown cryptocurrencies or the death of celebrities, who in reality are still alive. In exchange for the number of clicks on their link or views of their content, cybercriminals can receive income from social networks that pay for the volume of dissemination.
RECOMMENDATION: It is important that we do not believe everything that is published on the Internet. Before clicking on a very alarming news item or an attractive advertisement, it is important that we check on reliable and official websites, if what we have read in a headline or seen in an image is real. Nowadays we insist even more on this recommendation, due to the malicious use of Artificial Intelligence, which allows the creation of almost realistic content, such as fake political interviews or advertisements of online investments made by celebrities, which later turn out to be fraud.