Are you noticing shortened links? Tiny URLs? You can’t immediately see where you’ll go if you click through.

This is great for those of us who put links (URLs) within an email. But for security minded users – do you want to click through? As an email creator the choice is convenience versus: chance losing a client.

Unfortunately malicious websites are now disguising themselves using shortened URLs. The click through threat is real.

Here’s the solution. These shortened links are created by multiple companies (TinyURL, bit.ly, is.gd), but here are solutions for 2 common ones.

If you see this:

http://bit.ly/11Sty

Copy and paste into your browser – ADD a + sign to the end

http://bt.ly/11Sty+

This will take you to a bit.ly page showing information about the link, with a fully expanded URL. You can decide if it is safe or not.

TinyURL has a solution – prepend the word preview.

http://tinyurl.com/82u5b

Copy  and paste into address bar and ADD – preview:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/82u5b

A little time, but far less than undoing a virus.