With 66 percent of all Americans using the internet, email is an extremely vital medium for marketing initiatives. But this marketing channel is more than green pastures. The Anti-Phishing Work Group documented just under 18,000 phishing attacks in January 2006 alone. With this, marketers must remember that inboxes are becoming littered with messages from illegitimate sources, causing some users to worry about the content and intentions of messages.
But before we can talk about what should be done about phishing, we must first understand it.
Phishing 101
Phishing is an attempt to falsely acquire personal information, such as passwords or credit card details, by masquerading as a reputable person or business in an electronic communication, such as an email or instant message. While the majority of phishing attacks have focused on larger financial institution and online payment sites, phishers have expanded their tactics by starting to attack smaller banks, credit unions and high-level gaming sites.
As a result, technology companies are fighting back.
Internet Explorer v7
A wide range of new technologies are being deployed, from improvements of current software to brand new technologies. Some of these technologies include web browsers and toolbars. But the one that appears to be the most anticipated is Internet Explorer v7 (IE7).
IE7 is in beta testing right now, but once launched it will offer users a built-in MS Phishing Filter that will offer a series of three checks to help protect users from phishing scams. Checks include comparing the site to a list of known phishing sites, scanning the website for common phishing characteristics and double checking with an opt-in online MS service of reported phishing sites, which is updated several times every hour.
Once the filter runs through these checks, the system generates a warning to inform users of potential scams. There are potentially two levels of warning or protection that will appear in the IE7 address bar if a user attempts to launch a website from a suspected phisher. A level one warning is a warning that will appear as a yellow box. It signifies that the website is suspicious. A level two blocks a site and appears as a red box which signifies that Microsoft recommends you don' proceed to the website. The location and color changes allow users to identify potential danger. Additionally, the IE7 browser will display a block page when a user tries to go to a known phishing site.
AOL Explorer
The recently released AOL Explorer is another example of how browsers are incorporating added security measures to software. Options include the ability to highlight links on a page to a different site, look up who has registered the domain that the user is on and show full URLs on a page rather than just the standard "cick here."
NetCraft Toolbar
NetCraft has come out with an anti-phishing toolbar which helps defend against email fraud. Once installed, users can view the hosting location and risk rating of every site they visit. It also traps suspicious URLs containing characters, enforces display of browser navigational controls (toolbar and address bar) in all windows and clearly displays sites' hosting locations-- helping you to evaluate fraudulent URLs.
So will these technologies make your recipients feel safer? Time will measure the real results of these technology advances. However, we are sure our recipients will become more aware of phishers and understand the value of trusted email marketing messages from legitimate sources.
Spencer Kollas is director of deliverability services, Premiere Global Services. Read full bio.
