RPS Fraud Protection

Imagine someone builds a new bank in your town. The building looks a lot like your own bank. The sign above the door says it's your bank. The tellers look very professional. You get a flyer in your mailbox inviting you to come on by. Concluding the new place is legitimate, you drop in one day to do your banking.

The following week, you find out your bank account has been emptied. You return to the "bank" to find it is deserted. The bank had been a fake, designed to lure people into providing their bank account numbers and passwords. As soon as you performed a transaction, thieves used your confidential information to steal from you.

As absurd as this example may seem, this is exactly the kind of thing happening today on the World Wide Web. Each day, thousands of very convincing emails lure people to professional-looking yet fake web sites. These fraudulent sites look exactly like the real thing, right down to the logo, copyright information, and privacy disclaimer.

Fooled into trusting the web site because of its similarity to the real site, and perhaps not noticing the slight discrepancy in the URL, a trusting computer user may enter confidential logon information, such as a bank account number and password. But what's this? After clicking Sign In, an error message appears, stating the server is down and to try again later. By then the damage is done. The logon information has been stolen, leaving the individual vulnerable to online theft.

This is where Fraud Protection comes in. Fraud Protection, part of Radialpoint Security Services, helps prevent you from accidentally providing confidential information by blocking known fraudulent URLs. Simply put, Fraud Protection doesn't let you visit a web site that is known to be fraudulent.

How does the Fraud Protection work?

When Fraud Protection is on, the URL of each web site you visit is compared against a database of known fraudulent sites. If the URL matches a URL in the database, or if the URL is associated with a domain that is known to host such scams, the web site is blocked. For more information on blocked fraudulent web pages, see
When the Fraud Protection Blocks a Web Page.

Up-to-the-minute protection

New fraud sites appear every day. To ensure up-to-the-minute protection from the latest scam sites, the database used by Fraud Protection is online. As soon as a new web site is confirmed fraudulent, you are protected, and you don't have to worry about updating local definition files.

Stay alert!

Although Fraud Protection is an important tool for safe and secure surfing, it is only part of a comprehensive solution.

Fraud Protection stops you from browsing to a fraudulent web site, but does not stop you from replying to a fraudulent email. Never provide confidential information through email.
Your computer should have virus and spyware protection tools as well as a good firewall.
Most importantly, stay alert and be suspicious of requests you receive for your information, especially through email.

No legitimate company will ever request confidential information through email. If you receive such an email and believe that it's legitimate, be certain by calling the institution first. Don't use the phone number provided in the email; use your local number, or look the number up in the phone book. For more tips, see Protect Yourself!

>> When Fraud Protection blocks a web page