TrustWatch Search Engine

There is a new free search engine designed to protect people from fraud, phishing and financial misdeeds on the internet.

"GeoTrust, Inc., a leader in identity verification solutions for e-business and a leading issuer of digital certificates for web security, today announced an expanded set of features for TrustWatch(TM) Search, the first free trusted search service aimed at helping consumers avoid becoming victims of web-based fraud, identity theft and phishing scams. In its initial release, the TrustWatch Search service verified sites that were secure for e-commerce and confidential transactions; now, the service verifies many content sites as well. Additionally, Certified Store rating data from CNET is displayed within TrustWatch to allow consumers to consider additional data when evaluating online merchant sites."

"Sites that can be verified receive a green "verified" rating; sites that do not have enough data to be verified, but are not known to be fraudulent, receive a yellow "not verified" rating; and known fraudulent sites display a red "warning" rating. If a site is deemed to be both verified and secure for the exchange of confidential data, it receives a lock icon next to the green verification rating."

If anyone would like to take a look at it go to: http://www.trustwatch.com/.

According to their press release: "TrustWatch Search also works with leading providers of blacklist data, such as Cyota and the Anti-Phishing Working Group, to alert consumers to fraudulent sites. TrustWatch Search uses Ask Jeeves search technology to provide search results.

Another good feature of this site is that the average person can report suspicious sites. The average fraudulent website is normally only up for a matter of days and since "Trust Watch" shares and reports their information, this could become a valuable "intelligence" resource that aids awareness, investigation and prosecution. As always, I highly recommend and encourage people to report suspicious activity.

Unfortunately (for me), this site only has a "yellow" (not verified) rating thus far. Maybe one of these days, I will get a "green rating."

To read the entire press release, click on the title of this post.