A system (50, 150) for assisting a user (14) to determine whether a hyperlink (152) to a target uniform resource locator (URL) is spoofed. A computerized system having a display unit is provided and logic (158) therein listens for activation of the hyperlink (152) in a message (154). The logic (158) extracts an originator identifier (102) and encrypted data from the hyperlink (152), and decrypts the encrypted data into decrypted data based on the originator identifier (102). The logic (158) determines whether the hyperlink (152) includes the originator identifier (102) and the encrypted data decrypts successfully. Responsive to this it then presents a confirmation of authentication conveying the name of the owner and the domain name of the target URL on the display unit, and it redirects the user (14) to the target URL. Otherwise, it presents a warning dialog to the user (14) on the display unit.