Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal Join Forces to Protect Consumers Against E-mail Fraud and Phishing Scams

October 9, 2007; 04:39 AM

SAN JOSE, Calif. & SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct 04, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal today announced a collaborative effort to better protect consumers against fraudulent e-mails and the dangerous scams known as phishing attacks. Starting today, eBay and PayPal customers worldwide using Yahoo! Mail will have a safer e-mail experience - they will begin receiving fewer fake e-mails claiming to be sent by eBay and PayPal. Yahoo! Mail is the first Web mail service to block these types of malicious messages for eBay and PayPal through the use of DomainKeys e-mail authentication technology.

The technology upgrade will be rolled out globally over the next several weeks to all users of Yahoo! Mail.

"eBay and PayPal's adoption of e-mail authentication technology and this aggressive move on the part of Yahoo! Mail are significant steps forward in the fight to protect consumers against e-mail-based crimes," said Michael Barrett, chief information security officer at PayPal. "While there is clearly no silver bullet for solving the problems of phishing and identity theft, today's announcement is great news for our customers who rely on Yahoo! Mail."

DomainKeys technology provides a unique way to verify the authenticity of e-mail messages, allowing Internet service providers to determine if messages are real and should be delivered to a customer's inbox. The collaborative effort between Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal will result in the blocking of unauthenticated e-mail, reducing the volume of fraudulent e-mail received by consumers and lowering their risk of falling for phishing attacks.

"By reducing the risk of phishing scams, Yahoo! Mail now offers a much safer Web mail service for eBay and PayPal users, and this protection will benefit the larger Yahoo! Mail community as well," said John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo! Mail. "We look forward to helping to facilitate continued industry adoption of DomainKeys and the proposed standard DomainKeys Identified Mail, as we continue to increase our efforts to safeguard the inbox."

"Today is a significant milestone for the added protection of millions of eBay and PayPal customers," said Dave Cullinane, chief information security officer at eBay. "Through industry cooperation, we can collectively try to stamp out phishing and other e-mail scams. We welcome Yahoo!'s commitment to this endeavor, applaud its leadership role within the Internet service provider community, and encourage others join in the fight to keep consumers safe from phishing attacks."

Yahoo!, eBay and PayPal are in the process of transitioning their systems from DomainKeys to the proposed standard DomainKeys Identified Mail. The implementation is expected to be complete in the coming months.

About DomainKeys and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)

Developed by Yahoo!, DomainKeys addresses the widespread issue of e-mail forgery, using cryptography to verify the domain of the sender. It allows e-mail providers to validate an e-mail's originating domain, making use of blacklists and whitelists more effective. It also makes phishing attacks easier to detect by helping to identify abusive domains. In May 2007, the Internet Engineering Task Force approved DKIM as a proposed Internet standard -- RFC 4871. More information is available at http://dkim.org/ and http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/05/22/.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!'s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities and world's knowledge. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

About eBay

Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day through commerce, delivering fun, engaging and trusted online experiences. We are constantly finding new ways to empower people worldwide to explore, learn, shop, share and talk with each other. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, Shopping.com, and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About PayPal

PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay without sharing financial information and gives consumers the flexibility to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts or account balances. With more than 153 million accounts in 190 markets and 17 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce. PayPal is an eBay company. More information about the company can be found at https://www.paypal.com.

SOURCE: Yahoo! Inc.