Symantec Corp. is fishing for dollars with a new service designed to help companies combat the ongoing epidemic of online identity theft, or "phishing," scams.The antivirus software giant was set to announce on Monday . . .
The antivirus software giant was set to announce on Monday a brand protection service that will use the company's global network of researchers and its desktop software to help companies identify and thwart online scams that use their names to trick unsuspecting customers.

Phishing scams are online crimes that use spam to direct Internet users to Web sites that are controlled by thieves but designed to look like legitimate e-commerce sites. Users are asked to provide sensitive information such as a password, Social Security number, bank account or credit card number, often under the guise of updating account information.

The Online Fraud Management Solution is a package of services that Symantec, of Cupertino, California, will market to financial services companies. As part of the service, Symantec will use a global network of probes and decoy e-mail accounts to collect, analyze and identify new phishing scams targeted at Online Fraud Management customers.

When new scams are identified by Symantec researchers, they will create filters that block the fraudulent messages associated with those scams. Those filters will be automatically deployed to consumers who use Symantec applications such as Norton AntiSpam and Norton Internet Security, Symantec said.

The company will also notify the Online Fraud Management customer named in the scam e-mails so it can work with law enforcement to get the phishing Web site shut down, Symantec said.

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