Phishing Attacks on eBay and PayPal Users

The article, "Gmail uses DomainKeys to lock out eBay Phishing Attacks," is about the common fraudulent emails and phishing attacks most members of eBay and PayPal are well aware of. The new use of DomainKeys authentication technology is going to produce a dramatic reduction in scam emails that a lot of members of eBay and PayPal in particular, as well as many other companies, receive in their Gmail accounts. Spam is the term used for an unsolicited e-mail and is often referred to as junk mail. Spam is usually sent indiscriminately to hundreds or thousands of e-mail mailboxes simultaneously. A tactic that is commonly used by phishers is the spoofing of source addresses in emails; the new technology of DomainKeys is geared to uncover this. eBay and PayPal will be required to include a proper signature on their emails, otherwise the email will be undeliverable.

I think this is an excellent idea for any company out there to invest in. One of the worst things about having your email accounts is the amount of spam you can receive in just one day. With the new DomainKeys technology, there will be a huge decrease in the amount of spam you receive in your email account. Usually when people receive an email from a company that they know about or have purchased from before, they will automatically just open the email without thinking twice about it. Just opening one email could be making your computer very susceptible to viruses and your information. With this new technology, instead of being so reluctant to open an email, you will be much more trusting that it is in fact a legitimate email from someone or someplace you know. 

Some of the drawbacks of the DomainKeys technology is that it is, as of right now, only being offered to Gmail and Yahoo account holders. There are so many other types of accounts (work, school, other personal accounts etc.) that are susceptible to just as much spam, if not more. Also, so far, only eBay and PayPal have signed up to be a part of this. If every company out there began using DomainKeys technology, spam may eventually become non-existent, but that still is a very long time away. Next, the use of the proper signature on each email that eBay and PayPal sent would be extremely important because without it, the email would never be delivered. eBay or PayPal may think that they had sent an email to their customers and not even realize that it was never sent because they didn't add the signature at the end, which could end up causing some big problems for either or both companies.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/10/domainkeys_phish_filter/

http://www.lab.ie/FAQs/DefinitionofTerms/