Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from Macworld UK. Visit Macworld U.K.’s blog page for the latest Mac news from across the Atlantic.
PayPal has denied claims it plans to lock Safari users out of its online payments service as it reinforces its protections against online credit fraud.
It has been previously reported that the company intends strengthening its defenses against phishing attacks. Early reports indicating Safari may be affected by the company move to block users of older or less secure browsers were incorrect.
PayPal corporate communications spokesman Michael Oldenburg told 9 to 5 Mac: “PayPal is developing features to block customers from logging into PayPal when using obsolete browsers on outdated or unsupported operating systems. An example of such a browser/OS combination might be, for example, Internet Explorer 4 running on Windows 98. In doing so, we better protect our customers from viewing a phishing site through their browser. We have absolutely no intention of blocking current versions of any browsers, including Apple’s Safari, from our website.”
PayPal last week warned of plans to block PayPal users from accessing the electronic payment service if they are using older versions of web browsers as it continues its war against phishing attacks.
Phishing sites are designed to look like the legitimate websites of major brands such as banks and seek to elicit financial and personal information. Users are lured to the sites through unsolicited emails, or can unwittingly land on one if a phisher has bought a domain with a convincing-looking name or one with slightly different spelling.