RoboForm Fights Phishing

RoboForm® is an effective way to help prevent the phishing scams plaguing Internet users today.

Phishing -- the illegal practice of posing as a trusted business or financial institution online in order to deceptively obtain sensitive personal data -- can be exposed when individuals use RoboForm.

Typically a phisher will send an email asking the recipient to visit a web page to confirm sensitive account information. The page will look identical to the business' real page, but is in fact a fake. When the victim types in his or her confidential information on the page, the data is sent to the criminal and the scam is complete.

What makes RoboForm an effective anti-phishing tool, is its practice of securely storing the URL, or Internet address, of sign-in pages in a passcard.

RoboForm shows Passcard as matching only if a URL stored in passcard matches an online URL. If a potential victim routinely uses RoboForm to log-in to web sites, they will not be able to log-in to a fake site because the URL of fake web site would not match URL stored in passcard for the real web site. Users will be tipped off, exposing the fake web site as a phishing scam.

Similarly, when user logs in to account using RoboForm, RoboForm would fill only the login page that has URL that matches URL stored in passcard.

Finally, anytime a user fills in credit card, social security, or other sensitive info using RoboForm, the software automatically opens a warning box stating that the web site is asking for sensitive info. The admonition is an important reminder for RoboForm users.

Every time the warning box appears, users should carefully double-check the URL listed in their web browser. For example, 'www.bankofamerica.com' should appear, not 'www.bankonamerica.com.' If there is any difference at all, there is a good chance the page is a fake.