The number ofphishingattacks on financial services
customers has increased dramatically this year, with fraudsters
focusing on threebankswhose customers they have judged
to be particularly vulnerable, says a security report.
Financial services customers were exposed to 60,000 phishing
e-mails in February 2008 alone, according to the Quarterly Fraud
Report from online brand monitoring specialist
NetNames.
The report showed a 70% rise in phishing attacks between
December 2007 and February 2008, which followed a dramatic dip in
the latter half of 2007 after the phishing highs of early last
year.
"Consumers may have been under the impression that the threat
had gone away," said a NetNames spokesman.
The report did not provide any evidence that more consumers were
being conned, however.
But it did identify that certain banks were being targeted, with
the customers of three particular banks accounting for the vast
majority of phishing attacks. According to the report, 77% of all
phishing e-mails in December were targeted at those three banks.
This grew to 79% in January and 88% in February.
NetNames did not name the banks.
"Just as phishing seemed to have slipped off the consumer radar,
online fraudsters have leapt on the chance to capitalise on this
false sense of security and have increased their phishing activity
drastically in the past few months," said Jonathan Robinson, chief
operating officer of NetNames. "Consumers must be aware of this
renewed and increasing threat and make sure they never give out
personal details over e-mail."
He added, "It is also crucial for the reputation of financial
services organisations that they make their customers aware of
these threats and help protect them."