Yahoo! and eBay to clamp down on phishing attacks

by Alex Donohue, Brand Republic 04-Oct-07, 10:30

LONDON - Yahoo! and eBay are in talks to clamp down on the use of fake emails claiming to be from PayPal, which are used by fraudsters to harvest personal details to commit identity theft and financial fraud.

The internet giant is working with the world's most popular internet auction site to devise new authentication technology for online payment service PayPal, following a rising number of phishing attacks from fraudsters worldwide.

It is understood that Yahoo! and eBay plan to rollout a technology upgrade in the next few weeks, in order to stop a problem that puts millions of internet users at risk. Criminals attempt to trick people into divulging their passwords, credit card details or usernames by masquerading as company administrators.

The joint venture between Yahoo! and eBay will attempt to clamp down on the number of fake emails finding their way into inboxes, by adopting a digital email signing technology and greater collaboration between internet retailers.

A typical example of phishing on PayPal occurs when an unsolicited email is received by a registered user, claiming an unidentified party has accessed their account, which will be suspended unless they verify their personal details.

PayPal, which has more than 153m registered users across 190 countries worldwide, has been a popular target for internet fraudsters since it was acquired by eBay in 2002. Other popular areas include fake emails from banks, pharmaceutical companies and in the insurance sector.

Michael Barrett, chief information security officer at PayPal, said: "While the battle against phishing and identity theft scammers will continue to require a multi-faceted approach, today's announcement demonstrates the power of DomainKeys and the security benefits to be gained by email users worldwide.

"If the consumer doesn't receive an email in their inbox then it is very hard for the phisher to victimise them."

Meanwhile, a study by anti-spam and virus business Sophos has found that 75% of Facebook users put their financial security at risk by making their personal details available on their profile for everyone to see.