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NEW (FREE)
Phisher Site
Blocking
Application
ATLANTA, April 19 2004- EarthLink (NASDAQ:ELNK) , one of the
nation's largest Internet service providers (ISP), today
launched a new consumer protection application designed to
help protect Internet users from insidious "phisher" site
scams. EarthLink is the first major ISP to roll out a phisher-blocking
feature, which will be made available at no charge to all
Internet users.
Proliferating at an alarming rate, phisher sites are online
scams that trick unsuspecting consumers into giving personal
information by mimicking real corporate Web sites. According
to the
Anti-Phishing Working Group 282 new phishing scams
were introduced in February, up from 176 a month in January.
The group has further identified that about 70 percent of
these scams have been traced to Eastern Europe or Asia.
"Annoying spam about lower mortgage rates and herbal remedies
has evolved into some very dangerous scams that aim to steal
financial and personal information from unsuspecting Internet
users," said Kevin Brand, vice president of product management
for EarthLink. "Until these Web sites are legally shut down,
this scam blocking tool is the best technological solution
available to protect consumers against these criminal
spammers.
"And when it is combined with the toolbar's other features,
Internet users have in their browsers the ideal set of
features to better control and enjoy their Web surfing
experience," Brand added.
This anti-phisher feature, called ScamBlocker(TM),
is part of an easy-to-use, Web-based application that can be
downloaded as a browser-based toolbar. This toolbar also
includes a search engine, powered by Google(TM),
as well as EarthLink's Pop-Up Blocker(SM),
which prevents advertising windows from appearing in the
customer's main browser window. Rounding out the feature set
is EarthLink's SpyAudit, which runs an analyzed audit report
that details all the spyware programs residing on a consumer's
personal computer.
EarthLink is also working closely with eBay®,
the World's Online Marketplace(R), and
Brightmail, the anti-spam market leader(TM),
to identify and block other known phisher sites.
With ScamBlocker, users are warned about accessing known or
suspected phisher sites and are redirected to an EarthLink-generated
Web page that provides additional information about phishers
and similar online scams, and what actions subscribers can
take to further protect themselves.
ScamBlocker and the other toolbar-based features work with
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Internet Explorer 5.0, and all
subsequent versions, and sits just below the browser's URL
address line. Consumers can download the browser-based
application at
http://www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar
http://www.download.com
http://www.tucows.com
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