How to Check a Website's Address Before Signing In or Paying in Safari on a Mac

What you need: A Mac with the website open in Safari, a statement, bill or letter from the company that shows its website address, and a pen and paper.

Before you begin: Do not type anything on the website until you have finished these steps.

Steps

1. Find the company's website address on your statement, bill or letter. Write it on paper, leaving out https:// and www. at the start, and anything from the next / after the name onward. For example, www.mybank.com/help becomes mybank.com, and mybank.com stays mybank.com.
2. Click once inside the address bar, the wide box at the top of the Safari window. The website's full address appears, highlighted. Do not type anything.
3. Find the website's name in the address bar: the part after https:// and before the next /, or to the end if there is no /. For example, in https://secure.mybank.com/login, the name is secure.mybank.com.
4. Compare that name with what you wrote, letter by letter. Capital and small letters count as the same. It matches only when the name is exactly what you wrote, or ends with a dot followed by exactly what you wrote. For mybank.com, the names mybank.com and secure.mybank.com match. These do not match: secure-mybank.com (a dash in front, not a dot), onlinemybank.com (letters in front, not a dot), mybnak.com (two letters swapped) and mybank.com.check-account.net (it ends with something else).
5. If the name matches, this is the company's website, and you can continue on it. You are done.
6. If the name does not match, or you are not sure, do not type anything on that page. Click the + button at the top right of the Safari window. A new tab opens.
7. Click once inside the address bar at the top of the new tab. Type the address from your statement, bill or letter, as it is printed. Check it letter by letter against the paper, then press the Return key. The company's website opens in the new tab.
8. Close the page that did not match: move the pointer over the other tab, to the left of the new one, in the row of tabs near the top of Safari, then click the X that appears at the left end of that tab. If a box asks Are you sure you want to leave this page?, click Leave Page.
9. If you had already typed a password or card number on the page that did not match, call the company at the phone number on your statement or on the back of your card. Tell them you typed your password or card number on a website that was not theirs.

Expected result: The website's name in the address bar matches the address from your statement, bill or letter, as described in step 4.