<...>
On top of all that, I tend to check all links with VirusTotal (mind you it will not catch them all), turning that into a habit. I even use Opera to browse many URLs just to hide my real IP (its basically a proxy, not a VPN), despite using a VPN.
Will you mind sharing the website you use to get your proxies? Are they completely safe to browse over? Paid or free?
...snip...
On top of all that, I tend to check all links with VirusTotal (mind you it will not catch them all), turning that into a habit.
Another scanner:
https://www.urlvoid.com/It is always a good practice to use more than one scanner.
A
4 year-old article opened my eyes that even shortening them is dangerous for our privacy and data. In terms of finding the links, I use
http://www.getlinkinfo.com to check all shortened URLs.