“We’re very excited that Google has taken this step and is working with us to help protect your online safety,” said Michael Barrett, the chief information security officer for PayPal, in his post to the PayPal blog. “From now on, if you have a Gmail e-mail address, you will see a dramatic reduction in the amount of e-mails which purport to come from PayPal and eBay, but which aren’t in fact from us.”

The full post by Michael Barrett includes links to additional anti-phishing information (including a white paper and video tutorial). Gmail also posted to their blog.

A similar implementation with Yahoo! Mail was announced on the PayPal blog back in October. I have used Yahoo! Mail (http://mail.yahoo.com) for all things eBay/PayPal in the past and I can’t remember the last time an eBay/PayPal spam made it through the filter and into my inbox (I wish I could say the same for pharmaceuticals and/or ladies that apparently really, REALLY want to get in touch with me). The fact that I’m not getting “phished” tells me that something is working and it’s encouraging to see GMail users getting the same kind of attention.

To find out more about how Gmail deals with phishing and spam, check out the following LINK.

eBay also provides insight into preventing spoof emails and websites in its Security & Resolution Center. PayPal does the same in its “Fight Phishing” pages.

Cheers,
RBH