To collect information such as passwords, online criminals use “spoofing” to direct Internet users to fraudulent Web sites. In one study of Internet fraud, students were warned about spoofing and then asked to log in to their university account starting from the university’s home page. In some cases, the login link led to the genuine dialog box. In others, the box looked genuine but in fact was linked to a different site that recorded the ID and password the student entered. An alert student could detect the fraud by looking at the true Internet address displayed in the browser status bar below the window, but most just entered their ID and password. Is this study an experiment? Why? What are the explanatory and response variables?

Given in the question that, To collect information such as passwords, online criminals use “spoofing” to direct Internet users to fraudulent Web sites. In one study of Internet fraud, students were warned about spoofing and then asked to log in to their university account starting from the university’s home page. In some cases, the login link led to the genuine dialog box. In others, the box looked genuine but in fact was linked to a different site that recorded the ID and password the student entered. An alert student could detect the fraud by looking at the true Internet address displayed in the browser status bar below the window, but most just entered their ID and password.

We need to find the explanatory and response variables .

An experiment involves administering a treatment to a group of people with the purpose of observing the consequences.

An observational research does not interfere with the situation in any way and records the reactions discreetly.

The purpose of a response variable is to examine the study's reaction or outcome.

Changes in the answer variable are caused by an explanatory variable.