Microsoft Global Phishing enforcement
What is Phishing?
Phishing is an attempt to obtain your personal information like user name and passwords for PayPal, your email, and 
access to your online banking. They lure you to a replicated site of one that you are familiar with, like say PayPal, you don’t check the address in the browser and think that you are logging into the actual site. They log all your authentication information that you use and then give you the impression that your attempt has failed. The fake site may then redirect you to the official website and you attempt to login again with success. Your first attempt was logged and can be used to login to the website as you. These traps are normally sent to you as an email, with the general theme that there is a problem with your account and they need you to login in to the site to check details, and a link in the email to the fake site.
Microsoft has taken these types of scams very seriously and has put a lot of time and effort into stopping the people they setup these fake websites. They have filed 129 law suites against people in Europe, Middle East and Africa. It was called the PhishTank project. The initiative targets Phishing operations that use Hotmail and MSN services. The actions have ranged in severity from €1,000 ($1,675) settlements with teenaged phishers, to a 30-month jail term handed out to a man convicted of Phishing in Turkey. The report also found that Barclays Bank was the third most popular Phishing target on the Web last month, behind EBay and PayPal.The new internet explorer 7 helps prevent this type of scam by scanning the site and testing to see if the site looks genuine.I would only recommend logging in to these sites from known bookmarks/ favorites that are already setup in your browser manually and not from links in your emails. If you would like to know about how you can protect yourself in more detail or take advantage of our mail filters, please contact us we would be happy to give you quality support and advice on any of your IT systems.
Matthew Aylard - CSA