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Everybody is telling you about the evils of Phishing and its growing popularity with scammers. Here's a free way to limit the damage. The most often used way to confuse
the average surfer into revealing sensitive data is by the use of fake URLs
whilst imitating a brand-name website such as ebay or a bank.
The SpoofStick, from CoreStreet, is
a simple web browser extension that helps users detect spoofed (fake) websites.
SpoofStick makes it easier to spot a spoofed website by prominently displaying
only the most relevant domain information. It's not a comprehensive solution,
but it's a good start.
For example, if you're on the
following URL (this is a real, legitimate ebay url):
http://signin.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?
SignIn&UsingSSL=0&pUserId=&ru=http%3A%2F%
2Fcontact.ebay.com%2Fws1%2FeBayISAPI.dll%
3FShowCoreAskSellerQuestion%26requested% 3Ddominicsmusic%26de%3Doff%26iid%
3D3711129021%26frm%3D284%26acceptcookie%
3D0%26loginconfirmed%3D0%26redirect%3D0%
26pass%3D%7B_pass_%7D%26userid%3D&pp=p
ass&co_partnerid=2&pageType=711"
Spoofstick will say: "You're on
ebay.com".
If you get fooled by going to a
spoofed site, for example http://signin.ebay.com@10.19.32.4/ (a "spoof" example used by ebay in their
customer outreach),
Spoofstick will say: "You're on
10.19.32.4"
You can customize the color and
size of the SpoofStick display to suit your tastes and make it harder for a fake
site to try to “spoof” SpoofStick with a static graphic. SpoofStick contains no
adware, spyware, nagware or other unhealthy additives. The free extension is
available for both Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the growing FireFox. |
