Phishing attacks use fraudulent websites and emails that mimic well-known organizations in order to trick unsuspecting Internet users. A simple login or account number entry screen becomes a sophisticated trap. By assuming you are dealing with a trusted party, you can reveal financial information including credit card numbers, bank accounts, passwords, and social security numbers to the “bad guys”. This type of attack is very difficult for the typical person to detect, as the scammer’s emails and websites mimic the exact style and graphics of the spoofed company, and appear genuine. Sensitive financial information disclosed to scammers is used to make fraudulent financial transactions and to enable long-term identity theft.

Organizations recently impersonated by phishers have included eBay, Citibank, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), PayPal, AOL, Visa, Bank One, EarthLink, Microsoft, AT&T, Yahoo, Chase, and numerous others.

As you can see from the reports above, phishing activity keeps on going higher and higher especially during holiday season.

Luckily there are simple and free software available to protect us from phishing scam.

PhishGuard blocks Internet “phishing” or “spoofing” attacks for computers running Microsoft Windows (Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003). Free versions of PhishGuard work with Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Once installed on your computer, PhishGuard unobtrusively monitors sites on the Internet that you visit with your browser. When you attempt to visit a harmful site, a warning window immediately appears giving information on when the site was discovered, and why it is considered harmful. You can still choose to visit that site, but we don’t recommend it!

The first person to discover a suspected phishing scam can use PhishGuard to report the offending email or URL (website address), literally in seconds. There is no need to divulge any confidential information to the scammers. Within minutes, our monitoring team has verified the scam, and added it to the PhishBaseâ„¢ database. Updates to the database are rapidly distributed to every PhishGuard-protected computer, effectively immunizing them against the newly discovered scam.

The patent-pending PhishGuard system utilizes the collective observations of Internet users, coupled with an efficient centralized server-based reporting and updating system. This unique architecture dramatically reduces the chance that any phishing scam can “slip through the cracks” and blindside an unsuspecting Internet user.

1. After installing PhishGuard for Firefox of Internet Explorer, The first thing you notice is the PhishGuard icon in the Windows System Tray. This indicates that the PhishGuard system is ready and waiting — using an up-to-date database of scams to actively monitor for malicious websites.

2. While reviewing your morning email you receive a message from your financial institution requesting that you login and validate your account information.

3. You click on the login link in the body of the email message. Firefox or Internet Explorer launches, but BEFORE THE SITE APPEARS the PhishGuard alert window is displayed.

4. You click “Cancel” so that the browser never goes to this fraudulent website. You decide to review the email message more carefully. However, when comparing this email message to ones previously received from your financial institution, you realize that you cannot tell them apart. Luckily, PhishGuard was there to watch over your Internet activity.

[ PhishGuard Website | Download PhishGuard ]

Note: The PhishGuard Pro version protects all popular browsers (including Firefox, Internet Explorer, AOL Browser, Mozilla, and Netscape). You’ll need to pay US$19.95 for a one year license.
However, the free version is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.