These days, online scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Thanks to URL shorteners, you don’t even know what the actual link is until you click, and sometimes, that’s too late. This is why staying updated with the latest scams is essential. That’s something DuckDuckGo is doing with the latest update to its browser’s scam blocker.
DuckDuckGo updates its scam blocker
Right now, DuckDuckGo’s built-in scam blocker in its browser protects users from various online threats. This includes phishing sites and malware. However, if you felt this wasn’t robust enough, you’re in luck. With this new update, the browser’s protection has been expanded to cover sham e-commerce sites, fake cryptocurrency exchanges, and “scareware”.
Scareware, for those unfamiliar, is an online tactic that tries to trick or scare you into thinking your computer has a virus. When you click the link, bad stuff usually follows.
According to the company, “The scam tactics vary, but the end goals are usually the same: to commit financial fraud using your personal information or to trick you into paying for products or services that don’t exist. If you accidentally click a link that would take you to one of these scammy sites, DuckDuckGo’s built-in Scam Blocker will stop the page from loading and show you a warning message that allows you to navigate safely away.”
As DuckDuckGo notes, other competing browsers generally rely on Google’s Safe Browsing Service. However, DuckDuckGo emphasizes that it built its own solution. It touts itself as better for privacy since the information it gathers isn’t shared or sent to third parties.
The rise of online scams
Online scams are on the rise, and it’s not hard to see why. A lot of our lives revolve around the internet. Even word processing apps like Microsoft Word or Google Docs rely on an internet connection. This means that it’s easy for scammers to reach us, whether it be through malicious smartphone apps, fake links in emails, and more.
According to the FTC, consumers in the US lost $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024 alone.
That being said, DuckDuckGo users don’t have to do anything. The scam blocker feature is activated by default. Users also don’t need to sign up for an account. Also, if you’re a Privacy Pro subscriber, the scam blocker will also work across any internet app whenever the DuckDuckGo VPN is active.
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