6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characters that are visually similar include characters that are likely to be confused with each other.
1. A method for detecting illegitimate links on a web page, the method comprising steps that include: receiving a web link that includes link text and a link address; generating normalized link text based on the link text, wherein one or more characters in the link text that are visually similar are represented by a single normalized character identifier in the normalized link text; determining whether the normalized link text is in a format of the link address; when (1) the normalized link text is not in the format of the link address, and (2) there is additional context text adjacent to the normalized link text: extending the normalized link text to include the additional context text, wherein the additional context text includes context text from a left side or a right side of the normalized link text, and repeating the steps of generating, determining, and responsive actions, wherein the normalized link text is generated based on the additional context text; and determining that the link text is safe when there is no additional context text adjacent to the normalized link text.