Confusing Fraudulent Sites, Addresses with Political Content

Published in Sankei Shimbun
(Japan) on 18 May 2023
by Kiyoshi Ouchi (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Dorothy Phoenix. Edited by Wes Vanderburgh.
President Joe Biden's camp launched an official website after he announced his bid to run for reelection next year. The site's address is joebiden.com, using one spelling of his full name. At first, I headed to a search engine to check the contents of the site, but I absentmindedly entered biden.com, without using his full name.

I was then surprised when a webpage for an organization that does research and patient support for Alzheimer's disease appeared. The site was soliciting donations. I could not conclude from the page on the screen whether the organization was real, but it certainly was likely that it was using the address to incite people to click on it due to its similarity with Biden's official site's address, with no real relationship to Biden's site. It seemed to be trickery based on people's concerns that the 80-year-old Biden's cognitive abilities are declining. The situation is very complicated.

In another incident like this, when the scandal of former President Bill Clinton's affair came to light in 1998, users were forcibly transferred to an adult site when they entered a certain web address similar to that of the White House's official website.

Using misleading web addresses for fraudulent purposes such as making money is an old trick. The fact that these sites are tied up with political content seems to be typical of the U.S.


まぎらわしい詐欺まがいサイト、アドレスに「政治ネタ」

来年の米大統領選挙への再選出馬を宣言したバイデン大統領の陣営が公式サイトを立ち上げた。アドレスはフルネームをひとつづりにした「joebiden.com」である。まずはその内容をチェックしておこうと検索エンジンに向かったのだが、うっかり者の私は、フルネームではなく「biden.com」と入力してしまった。

するとびっくり、アルツハイマー病の研究や患者支援をうたう団体のページが現れた。「寄付してください」と呼びかけている。画面では実在する団体なのかどうか判断がつかないのだが、バイデン氏の公式サイトに酷似したアドレスを無関係なサイトへ誘導する入り口にしているのは確かだろう。80歳のバイデン氏について、認知能力の低下を懸念する声があるのを踏まえた細工のようだ。何とも手が込んでいる。

同種の事例としては、1998年に当時のクリントン大統領の不倫スキャンダルが明らかになった後、ホワイトハウスの公式サイトに酷似したアドレスを入力すると、強制的にポルノサイトへ飛ばされるというケースがあった。

紛らわしいアドレスを詐欺まがいの金もうけなどに利用するのは以前からよくある手口。そこに「政治ネタ」が絡むのが、米国らしいといえば米国らしい。(大内清)
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

Hot this week

Australia: Donald Trump Just Won the Fight To Remake America in 3 Big Ways

Spain: A NATO Tailor-Made for Trump

OPD 26th June 2025, edited by Michelle Bisson Proofer: See...

Palestine: Ceasefire Not Peace: How Netanyahu and AIPAC Outsourced Israel’s War to Trump

Ukraine: Why Washington Failed To End the Russian Ukrainian War

Malta: The Arrogance of Power

Topics

India: Trump’s Tariffs Have Hit South Korea and Japan: India Has Been Wise in Charting a Cautious Path

Australia: Donald Trump Is Not the Only Moving Part When It Comes to Global Trade

Ireland: As Genocide Proceeds, Netanyahu Is Yet Again Being Feted in Washington

Canada: Canada’s Retaliatory Tariffs Hurt Canadians

Spain: A NATO Tailor-Made for Trump

OPD 26th June 2025, edited by Michelle Bisson Proofer: See...

Germany: Trump’s Words and Putin’s Calculus

Related Articles

India: Trump’s Tariffs Have Hit South Korea and Japan: India Has Been Wise in Charting a Cautious Path

Japan: Iran Ceasefire Agreement: The Danger of Peace by Force

Japan: Trump’s 100 Days: A Future with No Visible Change So Far

Japan: US Administration Losing Credibility 3 Months into Policy of Threats