UK payments
association Apacshas reported more than
10,000phishing incidentsfor the first
quarter this year - up 200% on the same quarter last
year.
Phishing is
the name given to e-mails that claim to be from a bank but which
are actually sent by fraudsters.
Although online banking fraud losses decreased by a third from
£33.5m in 2006 to £22.6m in 2007, the fraudsters are still having
some success in duping customers with phishing e-mails, said
Apacs.
Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs, said,
"Although online banking fraud losses fell last year, the
fraudsters clearly are not giving up. Phishing scams are continuing
to rise and they are becoming ever more sophisticated, which is why
we want to remind people to remain wise to them."
She said, "The advice is quite simple: just remember that your
bank will never send you e-mails asking you to disclose Pin
numbers, log-in details or complete passwords - if you receive an
e-mail of this nature you should delete it."
Apacs research shows that although the number of people either
deleting or taking no action when receiving a phishing email has
increased from 75% in 2006 to 82% last year, there are still nearly
one in five people who don't follow these common sense
precautions.
Phishing emails can be
reported to
Apacs.