eBay, Gmail and PayPal seek to limit bad emails

Three firms unite to stop the spread of misleading or malicious mails

PayPal, eBay and Gmail have teamed up to try and limit the amount of spam or phishing mails that their customers receive.

As of today customers of either PayPal or eBay, that have Gmail accounts, will be protected from malicious mails thanks to the use of email authentication, the firms said. In this case the firms will be using DomainKeys and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) tools.

In a statement the firms said, "DomainKeys technology adds another layer to spam and phishing protections by allowing Internet service providers to determine if messages are real and decide if they should be delivered to a customer’s inbox. The collaboration between eBay, PayPal and Gmail will lower consumers’ risk of being victims of phishing attacks through the reduction of fraudulent e-mail consumers receive."

Brad Taylor, senior staff software engineer in charge of Gmail’s anti-spam efforts added, ”we’re always looking for ways to eliminate unwanted e-mail from our users’ inboxes. Phishing is an especially nasty form of spam, so we appreciate having another weapon in our arsenal against it. We’re glad to be working with eBay and PayPal to protect our users.”