Take a look at the Web page below. Doesn't it look like the
sign-in page for eBay? If you think so and enter your eBay User
ID and Password and click Sign In, you have just given this information
to someone who would use it to complete transactions in your
behalf. Often one gets e-mail from what looks like a bank asking
you to log in to help the bank manage a security situation. But,
it is not your bank that is looking for this information, it
is someone else. The activity is called "phishing"
which directs you to a site that looks legitimate, but you are
really dealing with a fake site or "spoofing". (Continued
below the graphic)
How do you know if you are or are not on an eBay or bank
Web page? Well, it is difficult to know without some help. That
is where an anit-spoofing or anti-phishing tool or program comes
in. One such tool (or in this case a browser extension) is called
SpoofStick by CoreStreet ®. Click here
to read about this extension to Internet Explorer. If you are
using FireFox, you can install SpoofStick for this browser as
well.
SpoofStick, once installed, provides a toolbar below the
address toolbar (or Links toolbar if it is turned on) in your
browser that shows you what Web site you are viewing. See the
Web page below for eBay. Look just below the URL or Address and
Links toolbars for the Web site in the page displayed below:
Notices that it says that You're on eBay.com.
This is your assurance that the
information you provide in this Web page will go to eBay and
not to anyone trying to get your secure information. Go back
to the first graphic. With SpoofStick installed, look below the
URL or Address and Links toolbars again. Notice that it says
that You're on 81.195.209.42. This is your indication that you are on a
"spoofed" Web page and thus you would not provide any
information to it.
To download you free copy of SpoofStick,
go to http://www.corestreet.com/spoofstick/
and the download link at the top-right section of the page
for the browser you are using. Install the program by finding
the file and clicking on it.
Now you can browse freely knowing what Web site and page
you are viewing.
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