PhishGuard is a simple, FREE software service for computers running Microsoft operating systems (Windows 98 through XP) and any version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater. PhishGuard harnesses the collective observations of Internet users to detect and rapidly disable Internet Phishing or Spoofing attacks designed to steal critical financial data. Phishing attacks use fraudulent websites and emails that mimic well-known organizations in order to trick unsuspecting Internet users. A simple login or account number entry screen becomes a trap. By assuming you are dealing with a trusted party, you can reveal financial information including credit card numbers, bank accounts, passwords, and social security numbers to the "bad guys". This type of attack is very difficult for the typical person to detect, as the scammer's emails and websites mimic the exact style and graphics of the spoofed company, and appear genuine. Sensitive financial information disclosed to scammers is used to make fraudulent financial transactions and to enable long-term identity theft. Once installed on your computer, PhishGuard quietly monitors sites on the Internet that you visit with your browser. When you attempt to visit a harmful site, a warning window immediately appears giving information on when the site was discovered, and why it is considered harmful. You can still choose to visit that site, but we don't recommend it! The first person to discover a suspected phishing scam can use PhishGuard to report the offending email or URL (website address), literally in seconds. There is no need to divulge any confidential information to the scammers. Within minutes, our monitoring team has verified the scam, and added it to the ScamBase database. Updates to the database are rapidly distributed to every participating computer, immunizing them against the newly discovered scam.