The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible

Posted by dreadsword 1/15/2026

The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible(creepylink.com)

807 points | 148 commentspage 2

jmward01 1/15/2026|

This had to be done:

https://wellsfargo.c1ic.link/TODO_obfuscate_url_8wyS7G_hot_s...

bl4ckneon 1/15/2026|

Thought this might be it... I clicked it anyways haha. I will need to update the Rick roll url on my nfc implant with this new link!

zX41ZdbW 1/15/2026||

I would also like to have something like this, but for "vintage" links - something that looks like it was from the late 90s.

I use them in tests, just for fun: https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse/blob/master/tests/q...

eythian 1/15/2026|

There was a "shadyurl". The site itself seems to be long gone, but this'll give you some context: https://www.mikelacher.com/work/shady-url/

Retr0id 1/15/2026||

There's an example shadyurl link in here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14628529

Funnily enough the domains appear to have been bought up and are now genuinely shady.

codemogul 1/15/2026||

BRILLIANT! Even Chrome says nope/DANGEROUS to a creepified link to mail.google.com

jhalderm 1/15/2026||

Fantastic! I miss the original ShadyURL.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31386108

domoregood 1/15/2026||

For funsies I shortened https://creepylink.com

And got: https://c1ic.link/account_kPvfG7_download_now.bat

archb 1/15/2026||

I also tried that and got https://twitter.web-safe.link/BUuLrg_document.zip

hahahahhaah 1/15/2026||

Squared:

https://c1ic.link/ad_k9OFWW_redeem_gift.bat

dreadsword 1/15/2026||

Saw this on relaunched Digg and figured HN would appreciate it.

bundie 1/15/2026||

Digg is back?

Edit: looks like you need an invite code.

Bummer

koakuma-chan 1/15/2026|||

I don't appreciate how AI generated this website looks.

nimih 1/15/2026|||

It seems appropriate that, for a website whose purpose is to make links which raise your suspicions, the visual design itself also raises your suspicions.

olyjohn 1/15/2026||||

Just looks like every other generic framework oriented site.

4k93n2 1/15/2026|||

which bit are you getting an AI smell from?

koakuma-chan 1/15/2026||

gradient background, card, button

Alupis 1/15/2026|||

Perhaps, but nearly every tutorial in all the modern frameworks demonstrate this exact style.

anomaly_ 1/15/2026|||

Have you looked at a website in the last 10 years?

qweiopqweiop 1/15/2026||

Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time

phoe-krk 1/15/2026||

I wouldn't call it a shortener, since most of the links it creates are longer than the originals.

What would be a good name here? A URL redirector?

kzrdude 1/15/2026||

It's an asymptotic link shortener

nephihaha 1/15/2026|||

Same here I took a six character url, and it turned into at least ten.

johnisgood 1/15/2026|||

URL lengthener. :D

phoe-krk 1/15/2026||

Huh, https://looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... comes to mind.

Thanks!

Retr0id 1/15/2026||

link obfuscator

juliangmp 1/15/2026||

This is legit! If you disable your adblock you even get a suspicious ad

falsedev 1/15/2026||

I can't tell if the website works as advertised because I don't want to open the generated links

dieggsy 1/15/2026|

This is fun. Is it not checking for previously submitted URLs though? I can seemingly re-submit the exact same URL and get a new link every time. I would expect this to fill the database unnecessarily but I have no idea how the backend works.

saghm 1/15/2026||

Am I missing something, or would these essentially be implemented via DNS records? It's not clear to me that keeping the links in a database would be necessary at all (unless the DNS records are what you mean by "database")

janwillemb 1/15/2026||

DNS is only for resolving the host part. The path is not passing through a dns query.

In example.com/blah, the /blah part is interpreted by the host itself.

And apart from that I would indeed consider DNS records a database.

hinkley 1/15/2026||

I got https://microsoft.web-safe.link/cZ17Xn_claim_gift_card.msi for this article. What do you get?

dieggsy 1/15/2026||

Just resubmit it, you'll probably get a new link. I get something different every time.

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