Developers of the Mozilla Thunderbird project say they have developed an anti-phishing tool that will be included in the next release of their popular open source email application.

Mozilla contributor Henrik Gemal said last week that the phishing detector should be available in the upcoming version 1.1 of Thunderbird.

The anti-phishing algorithm works by prompting the user with a dialog box if a url is clicked on from within an email that meets certain requirements. Phishing scams usually rely on hosting their fake pages outside of the real server’s location. This means they need to address their links with an IP address or a domain that is different from the real website.

By checking the links address with the one coded in the link name this simple method should stop most simple scams.

Other phishing scams that work by different methods such as browser hijacks and pop-up exploits will not be stopped by this method however. Those issues lie mainly with the browser software itself and not the email client.

Earlier this month it was revealed that a venerability in Mozillas own browser Firefox could allow certain Phishing scams to fool users easier than before.

In the end, Phishing scams still rely on fooling a user into providing their sensitive information. Users should be ever vigilant in the ever complex internet environment and remember that most large corporations and online services will NEVER ask for users details in the manner that Phishing scams operate.