Gmail, eBay, PayPal Battle Phishing With Email Authentication Technology

July 8, 2008 10:13 p.m. EST

Menlo Park, CA (AHN) - Google Inc. has adopted an e-mail authentication technology for Gmail to protect users of the free Webmail service against phishers trying to steal eBay and PayPal usernames and passwords.

Google announced Tuesday it is using DomainKeys and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) for Gmail in partnership with the online auction and shopping Web site eBay and PayPal, the e-commerce site that facilitates online payments and money transfers.

DomainKeys and DKIM use cryptography to verify the domain of the sender of an e-mail. If an email that claims to come from "paypal.com" or "ebay.com," including their international versions, fails to verify as actually coming from PayPal or eBay, Gmail rejects it and the email will not even land in the spam folder.

If Gmail users receive an email from PayPal or eBay, such email is authentic.