Are "tinyurls" not to be trusted?

[Carlos]

I kind of hate how you don't know what you'r gonna get when you click on something that says http://tinyurl/blahblah !!

Could they ever be dangerous ??

Thanks again guys for replying to my question =]

[Chuck]

Tinyurl is ze spy

Don't trust it

[Anuj K]

Tinyurl is just a service that condenses a link to be shorter. It's common for services like twitter, where maybe someone wants to post a link, but it's 50 characters by itself. That's where this service comes in. Although it shortens the link, it also doesn't show you what it is. Therefore, it's important to look at where the link is coming from, because it can take you to any site, including ones that have spyware, viruses, etc. I would only click on them when you trust the source. You could also use a service to see what the real link. This is such a service, which will tell you the real URL.

http://longurl.org/

[Winston]

They can be dangerous. If it's from your friends then 75% of the time it's safe (unless they're hacked). If by a spam, then definitely avoid it.

[?]

I have used tinyurl. From my experience i can say that its not safe to use it. Spyware, virus.....a lot of bad things can happen.