Be Careful with Fake Obamacare Websites

Story:

WARNING: There are over 700 fake Obamacare sites ready to swipe your info.

PRO Tip: The real site is the one that doesn’t work.

Other Versions

There are reportedly over 700 fake Obamacare websites that have been set up to rip people off by stealing their private information.

So how does one tell which is the real Obamacare website? Easy. It’s the one that doesn’t work!

Picture: Be Careful with Fake Obamacare Websites — Be Careful with Fake Obamacare Websites

Analysis:

Messages circulating online through emails and social networking sites warn the people in United States that there are more than 700 fake Obamacare or Healthcare websites currently trying to trick people and steal their private information. Yes, it is a fact!

As reported by the Washington Examiner on 23 Oct 2013 in an article titled “‘Cyber-Squatters’ Set Up Fake Obamacare Websites“, more than 700 fake or misleading websites are playing off around the new federal Healthcare.gov site. It is reported that the word Obamacare has been used by so-called cyber-squatters looking to steal personal information from the individuals trying to get healthcare coverage. The practice of Cyber-squatting (also known as domain squatting) is nothing new, as many companies register and set up websites with names similar to high-profile pages — either to gain traffic, or to share the information collected with other companies.

A retired cyber security expert provided the Washington Examiner with a list of 221 websites trying to take advantage of the Healthcare.gov name, and another 499 websites which are squatting on state healthcare exchange websites. Although many of the sites are considered legal, they have nothing to do with the government or the Obamacare program. The security expert also expressed his shock that the government had not registered any of those obvious top-level domain names before the cyber-squatters could purchase them. In between this nationwide concern among law enforcement officials, the authorities in California shut down 10 fake Obamacare websites in early November 2013.

John McAfee, the founder of McAfee Antivirus described the Obamacare website as a hacker’s dream, as millions of American identities could be stolen. So the citizens of U.S. who are looking for Obama health care insurance should be careful to choose the right website Healthcare.gov. Apart from stealing private information, the fake websites may even steal your money or install malware in your systems.

To add to this confusion, the official Obamacare website Healthcare.gov, which was launched on 01 October 2013 had some glitches, as the website was slow or nonfunctional at times. This is the reason why the message has a sarcastic note added. However, many citizens used the state-run insurance websites to get their healthcare coverage under Obama’s Affordable Care Act.