Kudos to CUPS – Carnegie Mellon University’s Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory, for Anti-Phishing Phil, a game designed to teach both children and adults the difference between fraudulent URLs and the real thing.

Credit also goes out to the U.S. National Science Foundation for its funding of this endeavor.

Users play as a little fish looking for food (worms) displaying tricky URLs. Phil swims another day for every URL he spots correctly, but the hook pulls him aboard a fishing boat for every wrong answer.

The game makes it clear why some phishing scams are so successful – it’s very hard for even knowledgeable end-users to spot every fake address. The game’s tips are bound to help almost everyone.

Click here to give it a try – and watch out for the sharks!