The Phishing Filter works in the background while you are surfing the Internet. It protects against phony Web sites that attempt to gather personal information about you when you are online. The tool requires little to no configuration. Once enabled through the Internet Properties window, it runs in the background without your intervention.

To enable or disable the phishing filter:

1. Within Internet Explorer, click Internet Options from the Tools menu.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Under the phishing filter, select the appropriate option.
4. Click OK.

The Phishing Filter uses three different modes: Neutral, Block, and Warn.

Neutral mode simply indicates that the Phishing Filter is running on your computer. A blue shield on the Phishing Filter button indicates this. The button will no longer appear on the MSN Search Toolbar when the Phishing Filter is disabled.

Block mode makes used of the online service that provides a list of Web sites identified as phishing scams. Any Web sites you open that appear on this list are blocked and IE prevents you from entering any personal information. You can easily tell if a site has been blocked because Internet Explorer will display a red bar directly above the Web page stating “This Web site has been blocked for your safety”.

The add-in also provide real-time scanning, looking for Web sites that are suspicious but not on the list of known phishing sites. If Internet Explorer finds a suspicious site, it will warn you by displaying a yellow warning bar directly above the Web page. In such cases, you can close your browser or ignore the warning.

Tags: ie 7, internet explorer 7, phish, scam, identity theft, prevent phish, phish attack