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[LUG] 20180920 OT. (perhaps?) Help please. To understand why URLs differ and domains change in loading smartphone apps.

 
To DC Lug, slightly OT
Dear Folk,
20180920 Help please. To understand why URLs differ and domains change
in loading smartphone apps.
 Bank apps on mobile phones or laptop OSes. Can you explain and help me
understand.

I tutor some folk at local library, one person, learning computing on
library PC, who has a ‘smartphone’ as her only computing device. [I have
no experience on a smartphone as I do not use one.].

 Problem arose when she was told by her bank to download its app and
they sent an email to her.  She showed me the email.
I could not decipher the actual email originator  as only the bank logo
shown as as sender  [RBS].  However in the email they advised her to go
to  a specific URL which was *not* a bank domain.  I assumed a scam and
asked her to delete, as it is always possible for her to go to bank in
person to get help or have email resent.

  I later investigated the bank site from OpenSUSE on my own machine.
 The ‘click through’ to get a mobile bank app opens (very rapidly and
closes) as  an “.me” domain then goes to a URL “app.bank.co.uk” site.
It was the “.me”   domain that caused me problems with believing the
email from the bank .
The “.me” domain in Ireland, seems to be third party server doing what?

Can anyone advise how these work?

Data:
Bank is Royal Bank of Scotland
Wanted: load bank’s mobile app to smartphone.

Email to her said download from:
Quote http.//   m.onelink.me     /d3ka1abe Unquote (spaces inserted to
avoid hyperlink)

Why a domain “.me”  for a bank?
My Checking on RBS site from openSUSE gave a rapid opening and closing
of a “.me”  link to arrive at at a  rbs.co.uk domain where it offered
four apps   one each for Android, Windows, iPad-Iphone ,and the old
Canadian OS.

Thus the “.me” seems to get to correct destination to download an app,
but why is this not directly on the RBS website, and why RBS showed her
the “.me” URL.

Sites found:
RBS mobile app website to download is given by a click through button
(hiding the ".me" link).

RBS click through  goes to (blanks inserted)

https://   go.onelink   .me
/834F?pid=Brochureware&c=R_GTA_Int_Mob_RBT12018_CTA1_a1&af_dp=None&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fapplink.rbs.co.uk?intcam=R_GTA_Int_Mob_RBT12018_CTA1_a1

Following gets to:

https://     applink.rbs.   co.uk  /text-mobile-application/traffic/8406502


From another place on RBS website to get a mobile bank app the click
through is.
https://   go.onelink.
me/834F?pid=Brochureware&c=R_GTA_Int_Mob_DABROCHURE0418_DEMO_a2&af_dp=None&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fapplink.rbs.co.uk?intcam=R_GTA_Int_Mob_DABROCHURE0418_DEM


Can you explain why bank does not redirect  to bank site as opposed to a
“.me” site?

Trying to get data on “onelink.me” presents warnings due their site
insecurity  by different search engines and Mozilla Firefox.

What do I need to know, that at present I do not know?

Thanks in advance,
Eion MacDonald.

-- 
regards
Eion MacDonald

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