Goodmail Partners with National Consumers League to Educate Consumers on Email Fraud

PhishingInfo.org Advises Consumers: Email Senders Not Always Who They Claim to Be

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 20, 2006 -- It was announced today that the National Consumers League (NCL), the nation's oldest consumer advocacy organization, has partnered with Goodmail Systems to increase public awareness about email authentication and certification. Goodmail is the creator of CertifiedEmail, a class of email designed to help shield consumers from email fraud and phishing scams.

Online identity thieves frequently use emails pretending to be from banks or other trusted sources to trick consumers into providing their account numbers and other personal information, a practice called "phishing." How's a consumer to know whether the "sender" of an email is really who they say they are? New information at www.phishinginfo.org, an educational site run by the NCL, explains how technology can help protect consumers from potentially dangerous email messages.

"Email authentication technology confirms that the sender of an email really is who it claims to be," said Susan Grant, NCL vice president for public policy. "Internet Service Providers and mailbox providers that deliver emails to consumers can use this technology to make it easier for them to look for tell-tale signs of phishing. Suspicious messages can then be flagged with warnings, and those that are obviously phishing attempts can be kept from ever reaching consumers' inboxes."

"Email certification goes one step further by verifying not only the source of the message, but that the sender is a legitimate business that has permission to be emailing you," said Richard Gingras, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Goodmail Systems. "In order to have their email messages certified, companies must be checked by an independent third party. Emails which are certified can be trusted by consumers as both authentic and legitimate - that is, safe to read and respond to."

Visit www.phishinginfo.org and click on "How to Protect Yourself" for more information.

About National Consumer League

Founded in 1899, the National Consumers League is the nation's oldest consumer advocacy organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. The National Consumers League is a private, nonprofit advocacy group representing consumers on marketplace and workplace issues.

About Goodmail Systems

Goodmail Systems makes CertifiedEmail™, the industry standard class of trusted email. CertifiedEmail provides a safe and reliable means for consumers to easily identify authentic email messages from legitimate commercial and nonprofit email senders. Each CertifiedEmail is sent with a cryptographically secure token that assures authenticity, and is marked in the inbox with a unique blue ribbon envelope icon, enabling consumers to visually distinguish email messages which are real and sent from email senders with whom they have a pre-existing relationship. Available to email senders meeting strict standards for best practices and low complaint rates, it is the only class of email available that assures delivery of all opt-in email messages to the inbox, with links and images automatically rendered intact, yielding measurable improvements in email campaign effectiveness. CertifiedEmail has been adopted by seven of the nation's top ten email mailbox providers, and is in use by 500 commercial, government and non-profit senders. It is supported in North America and Europe by a wide network of email platforms and service providers.

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Manning Selvage & Lee
Telephone: 212-468-4056
Email: stephen.gilmore@mslpr.com