Gmail LABS keeps it “Super-Trustworthy”

According to a recent blog post in the official Gmail blog, Gmail Labs will now include a spiffy little key icon next to emails that it deems the sender to be “Super-Trustworthy” . This is Google’s latest attempt to keep you safe from phishing scams -where the “phishers” attempt to elicit your PayPal or eBay password from you in an official looking email. You know the one that says click on this url to update your user info or your account will be deleted.
Currently they only have this “Super-Trustworthy” status for emails that come from PayPal and eBay, but plan to have more companies added in the future.

In case your are wondering what exactly does “Super-Trustworthy” mean, the Gmail Spam Czar, Brad Taylor wrote this in his recent blog post,

Super-trustworthy” is a technical term I just invented that means: (1) the sender, usually a financial institution, is a target of phishers, (2) all of the sender’s email is authenticated with DKIM, and (3) Gmail rejects any fake messages that claim to come from this sender, but actually don’t.

It should also be noted that if you want this feature to work in your Gmail, you will have to turn it on by going to your settings link (in the top right corner of your gmail account). Then go to the labs subtab/link, scroll down from about 30 secs (there are a lot of features here) till you eventually see the “Authentication icon for verified senders” . From here click the “enable” radio button, scroll to the bottom of the page and hit the save changes button.

When you are completed you should see something like the screen shot below in your PayPal and Ebay emails….