Links in Threads

[Larry Frank]

I have often wondered about the safety of the links that are put in the different posts and threads. I guess that I am very careful of any emails with links and also any in forum posts.

I never click on any of the links posted as I am uncertain about them.

While, I would think that most people are reliable, I certainly do not want to click on something and find that I get a bad virus or malware.

Am I being silly about this or is this a legitimate concern? Is there some way to know if a link is safe or not?

[Matt Day]

I would say you're being overly cautious. Some caution is very good, but links posted on SMC are posted by a person and generally have a description involved with it, and further more usually there was someone who clicked on it and has posted their comment, which seems it pretty fail safe. And mods are on top of this forum and delete most bad stuff before we get a chance to flag it.
Emails from random people that only say "it works" and refers to Viagra or something - avoid those. SMC, I'd say you're 99.9% safe.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Larry - it is always good to be cautious! If you doubt the link, don't click on it! We, as Mods, try to catch everything before it impacts our members but in all reality we can't catch everything and most problem posts are brought to our attention by concerned members. So, if you come across a link - or anything for that matter that you are suspicious of - then simply click on the report icon (triangle) located on the bottom left of each post.

A good rule of thumb here also is that if the OP (original poster) has very few posts... be careful.

[Bruce Page]

It's good to be cautious. I have never experienced any problems here. My #1 rule is never click on any link if it's the guy's first post. It is almost always a shill trying to boost traffic to a website. We usually pull them as soon as we see them.

[roger wiegand]

Yes, be cautious but no need to never click. Look at the link before clicking-- in most browsers if you mouse over a link without clicking it will show you the content. It should match the description-- i.e. if it says it is a link to festool then the first section of the url ought to point to that site, e.g. "http://www.festool.com/" if it says something like "http://www.festool.clickeme.ru/" instead it is bogus. For the most part you can see immediately if the part of the link that connects you to the site, after http:// and before the next / makes sense in the context.

[Dennis Peacock]

Always error on the side of caution IMHO. Same thing for emails sent to you from senders you do not know.