Overview
Many phishing emails contain links. Malicious senders try to convince the recipients to click on links to redirect them to a malicious site. Therefore you should always be careful with links in emails - even if the email seems to be coming from your colleague.
How to check the URL behind a link?
Depending on the device you are using there are few different ways you can check the destination address of any link. Please follow the guidelines below or consult with your IT or Security team for assistance.
Want to find out the destination URL of a Short URL? Please check this article.
Note: The following instructions assume you are using Outlook (desktop, mobile) or browser (OWA, Gmail).
Desktop Outlook (Windows, MacOS)
Hover your mouse pointer over the link. A small tooltip appears under the link and displays the actual destination URL.
Web browser (OWA, Gmail)
Hover your mouse pointer over the link. The actual destination URL will display at the bottom of the browser window.
If you still can't see the link, check the documentation of your web browser.
Apple devices (iOS, iPadOS)
Lightly press and hold the link with your finger. A pop-up dialog opens and displays the actual destination URL.
Sidenote: When pressing and holding the link with your finger on Apple devices, the default setting opens a preview window and loads the site visible behind the link. This behaviour is a bit problematic when you only want to see the destination URL and causes the simulation to fail.
Depending on your organization's mobile device management settings, this might be turned off.
To manually turn this off - preview any link in for. example a web browser (Safari) or Outlook app and tap the 'Hide preview' in the upper right-hand corner of the preview window.
Outlook on Android devices
Lightly press and hold the link with your finger. A pop-up dialog opens and displays the actual destination URL.
Note: As there are a multitude of devices using Android, they might contain special technology that affects the way links can be previewed. Please check the documentation of your device for further information.