AOL fights phishing

Phishing - "one of the fastest growing online crimes," PCWorld reports - has a sizable new enemy. "America Online has begun a campaign to identify and block fraudulent Web sites that attempt to solicit personal information from visitors" with the help of online security firm Cyota, a provider of anti-fraud services to financial companies. They will "try to identify potential phishing sites and limit access to them" from within AOL (for customers who use AOL as their browser). What phishers do is convince people via email and IMs that they need to "update their account, click here" and thus send people to fake Web pages where bank or PayPal customers are told to type in their username, password, account no., etc., which the phishers can now add to their database of stolen personal information. AOL's in good company: "In February, Microsoft, EBay, and Visa International launched a program to share information about phishing attacks called the Phish Report Network," which now has more than 1,200 corporate members, according to PCWorld. For more on this (including help for non-AOL customers), see "To foil phishers," 12/17/04.