It's not always easy to tell when you are being scammed by an email or website link, and it can cause a lot of trouble if you fall for a false website. Phishing, as it's called, tries to lure unsuspecting users to a website that LOOKS bona fide and then convince them to give out confidential information about credit cards, bank accounts, passwords, etc. Some of the websites are very sophisticated and very convincing.
To help consumers separate the bogus from the bona fide, CMU is beta-testing a game called anti-phishing Phil. The game teaches you to recognize websites that are phishing for information. Okay, it seems geared to small children, but grownups can benefit from playing too. You are shown url's and have to decide if the website is real or fake.
Sample questions:
http://www.ameritrading.net/apps/LogIn Is this the real Ameritrade website? (fake)
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=email-recovery Is this the real PayPal website? (real)
https://web.da-us.citibank.com/cgi-bin/citifi/portal/l/l.do Is this the real Citibank website? (fake)
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