US Patent 8171559 Detecting a phishing entity in a virtual universe

An invention for detecting a phishing virtual entity in a virtual universe is disclosed. A virtual entity may be registered as authentic and be identified with multiple physical characteristics thereof. Another virtual entity will be monitored to detect whether it includes a physical characteristic that is sufficiently similar to that of a registered virtual entity to cause confusion. A phishing virtual entity is detected based on the monitoring and phishing prevention processes may be implemented on the phishing virtual entity.