Go Daddy Adds Anti-Phishing To Email

The Go Daddy Group, Inc., parent company of GoDaddy.com and member of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (www.anti-phishing.org), announced an enhancement to the company's email system that will identify and automatically eliminate phishing attempts at the server level.

"Phishers disguise themselves as a company you are familiar with and then lure you to a familiar looking website where they prompt you to provide certain identifying information. Unfortunately, the site you are visiting is a fake Web site designed to deceive and capture your personal information," explains Bob Parsons, president and founder of Go Daddy, recently ranked No. 8 on the Inc. 500 list of America's Fastest Growing Private Companies.

"With the increasing frequency of phishing attacks, Go Daddy developed a system that will materially minimize our users' exposure to this threat."

Most often, phishers imitate large financial services companies, enticing the recipient to provide account information -- such as username and password -- through an email link.

"Phishing and email spoofing are growing quickly, and are avenues for criminals to steal the identity and financial information of consumers," said Dave Jevans, Chairman of the Anti- Phishing Working Group. "Go Daddy's addition of anti-phishing email filters will help protect their customers from this growing menace."

According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association focused on eliminating identity theft and fraud that result from phishing and email spoofing, phishing attacks increased an average of 50% per month from December 2003 to July 2004 -- with no sign of slowing down.