Basically there are 2 answers to the question of how to tell if a webpage is secure: first, the prefix in the webaddress will be https (as differentiated from the usual "http), and there will be an authentic lock icon displayed usually in the status bar of your browser.
The lock icon is the one bit of information that is really more interesting than I realized before I started investigating. The lock icon is not just a picture. When you hover over it with your mouse or double click on it, security information will be displayed. Fradulent websites may try to display a picture of a lock, but it will not have the functionality of displaying any information about security. An secure authentication, which is expressed by these lock icons, is provided by an independent, trusted third party who vouches by use of issuing these certificates that the site is secure. The most common of these third party vendors are Verisign, GeoTrust, and SSL.com.
For more information go to http://faq.ssl.com/article.aspx?id=10068 and http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cicsts/v3r1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.cics.ts31.doc%2Fdfht5%2Ftopics%2Fdfht50g.htm
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