Yahoo! and eBay join forces to protect consumers against email fraud and phishing scams

Mumbai, October 8, 2007 – Yahoo! and eBay today announced a collaborative effort to better protect consumers against fraudulent emails and the dangerous scams known as phishing attacks. Starting today, eBay customers worldwide using Yahoo! Mail will have a safer email experience – they will begin receiving fewer fake emails claiming to be sent by eBay. Yahoo! Mail is the first Web mail service to block these types of malicious messages for eBay through the use of DomainKeys email authentication technology. The technology upgrade will be rolled out globally over the next several weeks to all users of Yahoo! Mail.

“eBay’s adoption of email authentication technology and this aggressive move on the part of Yahoo! Mail are significant steps forward in the fight to protect consumers against email-based crimes,” said Sharat Digumarti, Head - Trust & Safety, eBay India. “While there is clearly no silver bullet for solving the problems of phishing and identity theft, today’s announcement is great news for our customers who rely on Yahoo! Mail.”

DomainKeys technology provides a unique way to verify the authenticity of email messages, allowing Internet service providers to determine if messages are real and should be delivered to a customer’s inbox. The collaborative effort between Yahoo!, and eBay will result in the blocking of unauthenticated email, reducing the volume of fraudulent email received by consumers and lowering their risk of falling for phishing attacks.

“By reducing the risk of phishing scams, Yahoo! Mail now offers a much safer Web mail service for eBay users, and this protection will benefit the larger Yahoo! Mail community as well,” said John Kremer, Vice President, Yahoo! Mail. “We look forward to helping to facilitate continued industry adoption of DomainKeys and the proposed standard DomainKeys Identified Mail, as we continue to increase our efforts to safeguard the inbox.”

“Today is a significant milestone for the added protection of millions of eBay customers,” said Dave Cullinane, Chief Information Security Officer, eBay. “Through industry cooperation, we can collectively try to stamp out phishing and other email scams. We welcome Yahoo!’s commitment to this endeavor, applaud its leadership role within the Internet service provider community, and encourage others join in the fight to keep consumers safe from phishing attacks.”

Yahoo! and EBay are in the process of transitioning their systems from DomainKeys to the proposed standard DomainKeys Identified Mail. The implementation is expected to be complete in the coming months.

About DomainKeys and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
Developed by Yahoo!, DomainKeys addresses the widespread issue of email forgery, using cryptography to verify the domain of the sender. It allows email providers to validate an email’s originating domain, making use of blacklists and whitelists more effective. It also makes phishing attacks easier to detect by helping to identify abusive domains. In May 2007, the Internet Engineering Task Force approved DKIM as a proposed Internet standard — RFC 4871. More information is available at http://dkim.org/ and http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/05/22/.

About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!'s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities and world's knowledge. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

About eBay India
eBay India (www.eBay.in), India’s leading online marketplace, is India’s biggest online trading community where anyone can sell or buy almost anything. eBay India is a trading platform offering auctions, fixed price and classifieds modes of person-to-person trading. There are a wide range of products listed on eBay India in an array of categories including Apparel & Accessories, Books & Magazines, Cameras & Optics, Cars & Bikes, Coins & Stamps, Computers & Peripherals, Consumer Electronics, Fitness & Sports, Health & Beauty, Hobbies & Collectibles, Home, Décor & Furnishings, Jewellery, Kitchen & Home Appliances. Mobiles & Accessories, Movies & Music, Musical Instruments, Services & Real Estate, Tools & Hardware , Toys, Games & Baby, Travel, Tickets & Vouchers, Video & Computer Games, Watches and Everything Else. eBay India is a 100% subsidiary of eBay Inc.

About eBay
Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for sale on eBay. eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customized sites in markets around the world. Through an array of services, such as its payment solution provider PayPal, eBay is enabling global eCommerce for an ever-growing online community.

eBay is The World's Online Marketplace®.