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 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
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JUNE 22, 2004
Tangled in the Phishing Lines [Page 2 of 2] CAUGHT IN THE NET. Some sites are coming up with their own toolbars, which work as a browser extension and warn users if they have left the service or are on a spoof site. Auction site eBay (EBAY ) has one that stays green when users are on eBay, goes gray when they leave the site, and sends out a pop-up message when they stumble onto a known spoof site. "It's a great first step," says Rob Chesnut, eBay's deputy general counsel. "It's not something we're going to be resting on." Marketers also have to make sure their missives can get through filters designed to fight the spread of unwanted e-mail. "A key challenge for legitimate marketers is that their e-mail is [often] not delivered to consumer in-boxes because of all of the filtering and controls that Internet service providers are putting in place to protect customers," says Forrester analyst Elana Anderson. "There's absolutely no question that spam et al has impacted the effectiveness of legitimate e-mail marketing." Microsoft (MSFT ) recently reported success using a tool from IronPort Systems that creates lists of "bonded senders" whose mass e-mail can make it through filtering software. To gain this status, marketers must agree to standards for sending mass e-mail (such as only sending it to people who have requested additional information) and post a financial bond that's debited if an e-mail triggers complaints. SLOW TO OPEN. Eventually the future will bring more complex ways for users to sign onto Web sites so password filching won't be so effective. Another possibility is the equivalent of a credit bureau for e-mail where only virus-free, validated messages will make it through to recipients. "There's a growing need for a trusted third party," says Frank Liddy, who heads the North American banking practice for Unisys. The problem with implementing many of today's available security solutions is that they can make online communication slower, more expensive, and more cumbersome for the average person to use. For example, sites are considering more steps for users to sign in, perhaps requiring a new kind of security key rather than a password. But that could deter frequent visits. Another potential drawback: GeoTrust's digitally signed e-mail currently requires a time lag of about five seconds to open while the e-message is verified. That could irk users who waited patiently only to be pitched goods they didn't want. "There's nothing out there today that's a Holy Grail to stop this problem," says the TECF's Eldridge. AVOIDING BAD BRANDING. For now, the best defense for marketers is strong and consistent branding, so customers can tell the difference between a real e-mail and a phishing attack, says David Sable, a vice-chairman at marketing communications firm Wunderman. He says he recently was able to identify a fake message from eBay because the tone of the e-mail wasn't in keeping with eBay's style. "That's proof of brand power," he says. eBay's Chesnut also advises marketers to never ask for personal information nor link to a page that asks for personal data. "Tell customers where to go, don't tell them to click on a link," he says. Consistency in online dealings with customers can go a long way toward training users to recognize fraud when it hits them, says Jonathan Penn, a security analyst with Forrester. "Whatever you do, you don't want to create a negative brand experience," says Sable. Companies are still recovering from past e-mail gaffes like flooding customers' in-boxes with too many offers, including so much personal information that customers felt their privacy had been invaded, and failing to coordinate internally so they confused customers with mixed signals, he says. Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates believes e-mail marketing will follow the same course as e-commerce, which was plagued with problems of fraud, poor service, and irate customers in its first few years. "I know it's going to get cleaned up," he says of e-mail fraud. "But now, it's a monster mess." For both marketers and security companies, taming that monster is a critical job.
 By BusinessWeek Online Senior Writer Amey Stone
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