Not Matching HyperLinks

This feature checks if the text of the link in the user's message matches the actual inserted link and directs to the same website.

Scam Mechanics.

If you might know, the links in Discord could be exposed like https://website.com or non-exposed, i.e., with a URL address (also called a link anchor) hidden behind the text link. This non-exposed type of link can be created with a special Discord syntax pattern like this:

[Link text](https://link-anchor.com/target-url)

Being posted in Discord chat, this message will look like this:

When the link text makes sense, it's okay, because users understand that they are clicking on a text with a hyperlink that can lead them anywhere, and they should be cautious. However, scammers can abuse this Discord feature to make the link text look like an exposed link, while hiding the actual link address using this syntax:

[octopeeps.com](https://octopeeps.io) or [www.octopeeps.com](https://octopeeps.io)

Let's take the first variant (without www):

And, being posted in Discord, it will look like this:

You see?! The link text here looks like an absolutely legit website URL, but the link anchor leads to another domain - to .io instead of .com!

A more complex example of this scam message can have this syntax:

Check the official [octopeeps.com](https://octopeeps.io) website!

Here we see the same picture with a mismatched domain name in the link text and the real URL in the link anchor. However, this time, the message looks even less suspicious because the surrounding text distracts the reader's attention.

Explanation of the Feature.

And this is where the Not Matching HyperLinks feature comes into action! It detects if the message contains a text pattern similar to a URL address syntax in the [square brackets] in link text and checks if it matches the real target URL address, if any, in the following (parentheses), and if it doesn't, blocks the message:

Depending on your Guard Settings, Bocto can also post a detailed alert to the #alerts channel it created during the setup on the server:

Patterns That This Feature Blocks.

Currently, the Not Matching HyperLinks feature blocks these patterns:

[https://octopeeps.com](https://octopeeps.io)

[www.octopeeps.com](https://octopeeps.io)

[octopeeps.com](https://octopeeps.io)