Microsoft, eBay, its payment subsidiary PayPal and Visa have signed up to the service, which offers a response to recent statistics reported by law enforcement association the Anti-Phishing Working Group that showed a 24% month-to-month growth rate in phishing attacks from August to December 2004.
Phishing is an act of fraud that involves stealing the identities of internet users by sending out emails or links to web pages mimicking popular web sites which ask internet users to provide sensitive personally identifiable information, such as passwords, credit card numbers or bank account information.
The Network allows companies like eBay, PayPal or Visa to enter confirmed phishing sites on a central database, where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Microsoft can obtain the information and incorporate it into spam defenses or site-blocking technology to help protect consumers against online fraud.
