Contributors to PhishTank help us — and many other companies — protect users from identity-stealing websites. Charlie Schloss is one of those contributors. Every time he comes across a scammy website, he makes sure to send it straight to PhishTank, so the community can verify it. Here, he answers five quick questions for our regular series.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Currently a student, I see the internet as a interesting tool that keeps expanding with so many possibilities. I report sites because I know I can help protect many people (friends of PhishTank) plus other sites… and there are a couple billion Internet users to help protect, with just one report.

How did you get involved in submitted scammy websites and emails to PhishTank?
Well I have been using Opera (web browser) and I saw PhishTank as part of their anti-phishing protection, so I joined that and then I saw that PhishTank is owned by OpenDNS and started using that and saw a big difference in Internet speed.

What’s the best phishing attempt you’ve come across in your time submitting content to PhishTank?
I am lucky not to have gotten the big ones that a lot of others seem to get, but I have seen some Hotmail phishing scams that were sent from a Hotmail account. I have also been contacted via Facebook chat in hacked accounts by people I know I have not talked to on FB chat before. Sophos’ Naked Security has a lot of the Facebook scams before I see them (recently I have not seen any friends failing of them). I know what to look for and I can tell the user if their account is hacked to changed their password and to check the facebook apps they have.

On Twitter you go by ChasApple. Any funny stories about where that handle came from?
Don’t remember where I got the idea for Chasapple but since Chas4 was taken already I went with Chasapple

Please tell us your favorite 1) gadget, 2) OS, 3) browser and 4) website?
1) hard to pick a favorite gadget as they keep changing so often.
2) Mac OS X
3) Opera is my browser of choose as they have the new features first about a year before others (tabs, speeddail, etc)
4) Favorite website would be my.opera.com as it is a great community as you can find interested people in any subject, from around the world, and the blogs post people have are about anything and everything and in many different languages

Interested in answering five questions for the OpenDNS Blog? Let us know!

After we published our 2010 year-end report, a number of people asked us why PayPal was targeted so frequently by online scammers — it stands out as one of the most phished brands in our report by a wide margin. In reviewing how we presented our data, it’s clear that we should have provided a few more datasets and some better explanations of where our data comes from for clarity.

One of the reasons PayPal is so prevalent as a target in PhishTank is because PayPal uses the PhishTank API to automatically submit any phish they find to PhishTank. This is a good thing — it puts data into PhishTank quickly so the community can verify the sites and PhishTank data feed subscribers can protect their users. While this highlights the frequency that PayPal is a target, it also skews the data to make it appear that PayPal, Inc. is the most phished site, simply because they are the most vigilant in submitting data to PhishTank. Obviously, this was not our intent. We’ve updated the report (PDF, Scribd) to show the most targeted brands in 2010 with the PayPal API data removed from the dataset, as nearly all other submissions come from the tens of thousands of PhishTank individual contributors.

As PhishTank continues to grow, we want to encourage other brands to follow PayPal’s lead in using the various PhishTank APIs to submit data alongside the submissions from individual users. In order to do that, we need to create an environment where brands don’t feel their participation in PhishTank is a double-edged sword. We sincerely appreciate PayPal’s participation in PhishTank, and in their fight against phishing. They should be commended for their progress in fighting phishing and keeping their users safe.

If the PayPal API-based submissions to PhishTank are removed from the dataset of phished brands, the list of most-targeted brands in 2010 shifts dramatically:

 1. Facebook                    8.64%
 2. HSBC Group                  6.73%
 3. World of Warcraft           5.35%
 4. Internal Revenue Service    4.87%
 5. Sulake Corporation          3.21%
 6. Bradesco                    3.15%
 7. PayPal                      3.03%
 8. Orkut                       2.90%
 9. Steam                       1.95%
10. Tibia                       1.72%
n=72,404

You can read the full report here (PDF) or on Scribd.

To learn more about submitting data to PhishTank via the PhishTank API, visit the PhishTank FAQ page.

We pride ourselves at OpenDNS on listening to your ideas, feedback and suggestions. After all, much of our success can be attributed to users like you telling your friends about us, setting up OpenDNS on your family member’s routers and suggesting OpenDNS to network admins at your work. The Support Center and Idea Bank are two places where we take feedback about how we’re doing, but we know we can do more to listen to the people who use our service every day.

That’s why we’ve launched a new quarterly online survey. Some of you may have seen an invitation in the past day or two to participate in a brief questionnaire. The four-question survey is a way for us to measure how we’re doing in our goal of providing you with the best DNS service on the planet.

With your feedback, we’ll identify the places we’re doing well — and work on making them even better — and we’ll also take a critical look at which areas you think we may not be performing in quite as well. We’ll be surveying a different group of OpenDNS users every quarter, so keep your eyes open for an invite in your email. Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Back in September I announced that OpenDNS had been selected as a World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer for 2011. This is one of the greatest honors our company has ever received, second only to the recommendations our customers give to their friends and colleagues in spreading the word about OpenDNS.

As a part of the honor, I was invited to Davos, Switzerland last week to participate in the amazing WEF 2011 Annual Meeting. The roughly 1,200 attendees included dozens of heads of state, excellencies, titans of industry, and many worldly luminaries. It was in Davos that I was able to hear Kofi Annan speak about Africa, shake former President Bill Clinton’s hand, have breakfast with Bill Gates and meet many of the leading CEOs in the tech world. It was amazing to participate in discussions on how we will solve the world’s many problems alongside some of the most impressive, powerful, and accomplished individuals on the planet.

I wanted to share some highlights from the week with all of you to give you a sense of the amazing environment that I was allowed to be a part of, and hopefully give you all a strong appreciation for how this will help OpenDNS grow to be an even better service for you and a driving force for innovation over this new decade and beyond.

The entrance to the main hall of the Congress Center where the event is held in Davos, Switzerland

Lots of personal security, drivers in armored cars, and more waiting to get in each morning!

Me (wearing a backpack) waiting to shake Bill Clinton’s hand.

Listening to the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, talk about protecting communications online and support investments in science and technology.

At breakfast with Bill Gates. Listening to him speak was inspiring and encouraging.

The surge protectors at the World Economic Forum allow plugs from over 30 countries to be inserted. Talk about supporting diverse power requirements!

It wasn’t all meetings, I did get to ski one of the days in the gorgeous Swiss alps. This is at the top of Parsenn, one of the largest mountains to ski on near Davos.

I even got to see some tech-celebs, including the wonderful Robert Scoble.