Fraud and phishing attacks soar

Email fraud and phishing attacks rocketed by more than 50 per cent in January, with around six new attacks sent to millions of consumers each day.

Phishing, where cyber-criminals try to tempt unwary surfers to submit credit card and other personal data to bogus websites imitating reputable companies, is proving a major menace to e-commerce.

According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group there were a total of 176 unique phishing attacks in January, a 52 per cent increase over the number of attacks reported in December.

Successful scams that fool recipients into downloading keyloggers and other Trojan programs represent an emerging threat and are growing in sophistication, the group warned.

The company most targeted by attacks in January was, once again, eBay, while the most targeted industry sector was identified as financial services.

Some eight per cent of the reported phishing attacks took advantage of the recently patched Microsoft Internet Explorer browser vulnerability that allows website addresses to be disguised.

"Phishing attacks are quickly increasing both in number and in sophistication, and pose a serious threat to consumers and the companies they do business with online," said Dave Jevans, chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, in a statement.

"The spam epidemic has evolved from a nuisance to a real security threat with this shift to financial crime and identity theft."

More information from the Anti-Phishing Working Group can be found here.

See also:

Gartner warns banks on spyware fraud

Stronger access controls urged for online accounts as spyware blamed for rise in theft  16 Jun 2004

Bugwatch: Foiling phishers

Formulating an effective anti-phishing strategy is vital  07 Apr 2004

Online phishing uses new bait

One click sends unwary users to fake websites  06 Apr 2004

Phishing still on the increase

Finance, retail and ISP customers primary targets of attacks  17 Mar 2004

Microsoft takes action on phishing

Flaws allowing clone website attacks have been fixed, says Redmond giant  04 Feb 2004

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