Patent ID: 7360092

Claim:
A method of aiding identification of an unauthorized sign-in module by a user, said method comprising: creating a sign-in module associated with a multi-site user authentication system, said sign-in module having a field for entry of credential information associated with each user, said sign-in module further having an identifying characteristic indicating the sign-in module is authorized to be associated with the multi-site user authentication system, said identifying characteristics comprising at least one of a distinctive image a distinctive sound, and a watermark; accessing a plurality of web pages; preemptively searching, by the multi-site user authentication system, the plurality of web pages for the identifying characteristic; for each one of the searched web pages including the identifying characteristic, determining, by the multi-site user authentication system, whether said one of the searched web pages is the web page associated with an authorized affiliate server authorized to include the created sign-in module, said determining including comparing said one of the searched web pages with a list of authorized affiliate servers maintained by the multi-site user authentication system; receiving, by the multi-site user authentication system, a request from one of the authorized affiliate servers to present the sign-in module to the user; delivering, to the requesting authorized affiliate server in response to the received request, the created sign-in module; and presenting, via the authorized affiliate server, the created sign-in module to the user via a user interface for entry of the credential information, said identifying characteristic in the presented sign-in module indicating to the user that the presented sign-in module is authorized to be associated with the multi-site user authentication system.