Various anti-phishing programs are available to protect personal information from fraudulent emails and websites. These include web browser security features, email clients, antivirus programs, and banking software. Some tools provide warnings about misleading web pages, while others evaluate email messages and classify them as phishing. Companies have also developed specialized anti-phishing software to combat scams targeting their websites. Antivirus programs can track down phishing scams and encourage users to report potentially fraudulent sites. Some anti-phishing software helps companies prevent identity thieves from using their name for scams.
Several programs are used by Internet users to protect themselves from phishing or theft of sensitive personal information through fraudulent email or websites. Different methods are provided by different companies to protect your personal information while using the Internet. The types of anti-phishing software range from web browser security features to email clients, antivirus programs, and banking software.
Anti-phishing software is sometimes included as part of a web browser to protect users from web pages that attempt to obtain personal information for identity theft. Some tools can provide users with warnings about misleading web pages attempting to obtain personal information illegitimately. Others show a measure of the trustworthiness of the site visited, as well as the country hosting the site and the name of the organization hosting the site. With this information, the user can determine whether or not the site is authentic and can be trusted with personal information.
Several programs have also been created to deal with phishing sent to users via e-mail. These programs start when e-mail clients start and evaluate each e-mail message received. Any email designated as phishing is placed in a special phishing email folder. It is then up to the user to review this phishing email folder and decide if any email messages have been classified incorrectly, in the same way as a junk or spam folder.
Since phishing scams specifically target certain websites, the companies that operate these websites have responded with their own specialized anti-phishing software. Banks have also released software to combat phishing scams. Some programs block attempts to access fraudulent websites and report these attempts to the bank. Alerts are provided to users when phishing scams are detected by the program and these users are then responsible for following the alerts. If users ignore the warnings, they are liable for any resulting identity theft.
Antivirus programs also include features that allow them to track down phishing scams. These can allow and encourage users to report potentially fraudulent sites. Other anti-phishing software takes phishing scams from the other extreme, offering services that help companies prevent identity thieves from using the company name to phish scams against their customers.
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