This morning when I received an email for a credit card, I was surprised to see a message at the top indicating that "Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information".
This message was displayed by Google as a warning. It appears that they are using the same technique that decides which adds will appear to locate keywords from phishing emails.
Google is currently testing a service designed to alert Gmail users to messages that appear to be phishing attacks. When the Gmail team becomes aware of such an attack, the details of these messages are used to automatically identify future suspected phishing attacks.The result: when a Gmail user opens a suspected phishing message, Gmail displays a warning.
Web providers need to start producing more technology to make users feel at ease.
Not that I'm a big fan of AOL but last night I also saw a commercial that indicated that starting in December they are providing free virus detection software to all of their members. As long as the software is easy to use it will be a big boost to their user base which is usually on the lower end of web savvy spectrum.
Posted by Jeff at November 17, 2004 09:22 AM