How do you tell between a real and fake Internet address?

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) claim to have found the answer, i.e. a game titled "Anti-Phishing Phil", which promises to teach users how to sniff a scam when they spot one...

The game runs for about 15 minutes, and has a tiny fish called 'Phil', whose job is to spot the difference between the fakes and the original ones.

"Anti-Phishing Phil" has been developed and tested at the CMU's Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS) Laboratory.

Officials at the laboratory said that users who had played the game were better able to spot fraudulent Web sites as compared to those who hadn't.

"Anti-Phishing Phil" works by offering users tips on how to examine URLs for wrong spellings of popular sites, or using search engines to validate URLs against search results, etc.

All this -- so that they don't end-up spouting critical personal information to rogue operators.

For those interested in playing the game, please click on: http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/antiphishing_phil/.