A word of caution to my fellow DUers. Beware of links in posts.

[Stinky The Clown]

More than a few that I have seen of late go to suspect sites. Lots of popups. Attempts to redirect. In the time I've been back to posting here (about a month before the election) and having followed suck links, I have noticed an uptick in spam. Twice, when followed from my phone, I got bogus phishing text messages within minutes, most recently just this morning.

[vlyons]

1. You can report a thread that is spam

We have a rule here about no spam

[MoonRiver]

3. The problem is that once you report it, your personal information could already be compromised.

I agree with the OP. Be VERY careful.

[vlyons]

4. my persoanal info has already been collected

a thousand times over.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Reporting it is NOT the problem. Reporting it may save DU members a ton of problems. . . . nt

[MoonRiver]

25. Of course I think we should report! But maybe don't click the link first.

[MoonRiver]

2. I never click on a link, or tweet,

unless there is at least a quote from it, AND, I trust the poster. But I might just stop clicking altogether.

[Jimbo101]

5. In my posts - I put the link on the name of the website,...

and before I click on a link - I hover over it & look at the *lower left of the screen - to see the link path.

And finally - I never ever click on short cuts or tinyURL links

*edited (haven't had my first cup of coffee yet)

[MoonRiver]

6. Most people, including me, have no idea what you're talking about.

I think I'll stick to just not clicking.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. He was very clear and it is very simple. Hover cursor over link and it will show where it goes.

Look for something in the lower left (usual place in Firefox for example) that appears / disappears as you move the mouse over and off the link.

Usually a link looks like a URL link, but sometimes they do not, if the poster uses the "link" button in this DU posting text area.

Here is a URL link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8065442

Here is the same link, using the "link" button on some highlighted text to create an embedded link:
RWAF

It looks like if you try to create a bogus link that looks like a real URL, DU software is smart enough to direct you to the visible URL:
http://washingtonpost.com/2017/02/17/trump-attacks-journalists-at-rally

What I typed was this (with curly braces replacing the square brackets and semicolon replacing vertical bar, to make the code clear):
{link:http://this.is.not.the.washington.p.o.s.t.c.o.m ; http://washingtonpost.com/2017/02/17/trump-attacks-journalists-at-rally }

[LeftInTX]

23. Thanks for the hover info

Being in the lower left corner of the page.

I believe in IE, which I haven't used in years, the hover was directly over the link.

[dalton99a]

7. +1

[2naSalit]

8. Funny you should mention that...

I have been conducting a disk cleanup after each Internet session, it's amazing how many "clingons" follow me home after reading through this site. And something has been disconnecting my little hot spot device lately.

I am extremely selective about which links I follow, here or anywhere.

[Mosby]

10. an add-on like ghostery will eliminate a lot of that

Some sites don't like them though, the Atlantic started blocking their content if your running an ad blocker.

[tblue37]

15. My Mac has a built-in ad blocker that doesn't block The Atlantic Mag's subscription

popups or sponsored links, but does block other popups. The mag still let's me read, though some other sites say no if I won't disable my ad blocker.

[progressoid]

20. Yep,

I've noticed a lot more sites won't let you see content with an ad blocker running. Even some youtube videos won't display in Firefox with ad blocker enabled.

[MineralMan]

9. Good point. The safest thing is never to click on blind links,

or on shortcut links that don't identify where you're going. Only click on sites you recognize as legitimate.

[pinboy3niner]

11. When I have doubts I display the actual url to see where the link goes. nt

[MineralMan]

12. Always a good idea.

I click very few links from DU, except to news sources I recognize and trust. A lot of links here lead to clickbait websites, and they do nothing but waste time.

[Squinch]

13. There is also a new generation of trolls who seem to be a lot more sophisticated.

But every post is either a nonsense issue that is nothing more than distraction, or it is concern trolling about good news for Republicans or the Trump grifters.

[SticksnStones]

16. THIS

Low post counts, quick paragraph that states Republican talking point but in "quotes", like that makes it ok...and then a link to some rabid right wing site ~

Bumps up that site's traffic, to be sure. And who knows what it's dumping in my cache.

And survives jurying. Go figure.

[Squinch]

18. I'm glad I'm not the only one to see it. They also seem to be peddling false equivalencies.

I think it survives jurying because if you see only one of the posts, you don't realize what is happening. But when you take them all together they are all to boost Trump and distract with nonsense.

It is very slick.

[bettyellen]

22. You can PM forum hosts and MIRT members with the info! Please do!

[Squinch]

24. If I see it in the next post, I will.

[tblue37]

14. Your typo is wonderfully appropriate: "suck links."

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Ha! You noticed. I was about to edit when first posted, but decided instead to leave it!

For obvious reasons.

[moriah]

26. Yeah, was about to say it was quite appropriate myself. ;) nt

[ffr]

27. MalwareBytes scan

It may not be the links. It may be something on your computer redirecting links.

[catbyte]

28. I know that McAffee is expensive, but it's been worth it. It blocks me

from ever going to a site by posting a BIG warning that there is suspicious behavior coming from the site I just clicked. I never go beyond that warning. But it would be better to just not copy the link & post it in the first place.