BlueFur.com Introduces Unique Anti-Phishing Tool for Outlook

May 18, 2007; 12:52 AM

SURREY, B.C (May 17, 2007)--BlueFur.com (http://www.bluefur.com), a Canadian Web hosting provider, today introduced Phish Phinder, its unique anti-phishing plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. The tool, currently available free of charge, allows users to more accurately determine whether emails are fraudulent or forged.

Phish Phinder works by scanning all incoming emails for HTML links. It then extracts the target location of each link, and places it in brackets next to the original anchor text of the link. By doing so, users can examine whether or not links are pointing to legitimate sites, and not merely fraudulent clones designed to collect, or phish, sensitive information.

“We released this tool because we were surprised that a similar tool has not already been made available. While many organizations focus on web browsers or attacking hosts, we decided to empower the end user and let them know what they are clicking on before they click on it,” said Lisa Jones, BlueFur.com President. “As an online business, we are very concerned with the rise of phishing and other forms of fraud, and we will continue to look for new ways to protect our customers.”

Currently, phishing emails and sent to victims, purporting to be from leading banking institutions or online merchants, such as PayPal or eBay. The emails direct victims to verify their account information by visiting a web page and entering in their sensitive account information, such as their username and password. Once the information is supplied, victims can be subject to stolen funds or even identify theft.

“By all accounts, this form of fraud affects tens of thousands of victims each year in North America alone, and it needs to be taken very seriously. We hope our tool provides a simple yet effective weapon in the battle against Internet fraud,” said Jones.

The tool was developed internally by the company over approximately two weeks, and is compatible with Outlook 2000, 2003, and 2007.

To learn more about Phish Phinder, please visit http://www.bluefur.com/phishphinder.
To learn more about BlueFur.com, please visit http://www.bluefur.com.

About BlueFur.com
BlueFur.com (http://www.bluefur.com), a Surrey, British Columbia based Web solutions provider serving well over 5,000 clients, has been in the hosting market since January 2003. The company offers a wide variety of Web development services, including domain name registration, email hosting, Web hosting, merchant accounts, reseller backup software, VoIP services, and targeted Web traffic.