Cybercriminals are combining technology, social engineering
techniques and current accounts to defraud people struggling
financially.
According to MarkMonitor,
which specialises in protecting brands, 502 organisations were
phished in the first quarter of 2009, which was an increase of 24%
compared to the same period last year. Victims are tricked into
visiting spoof websites where they are at risk of being
defrauded.
Payment service providers were the most phished category,
accounting for 42% of the total.
The biggest increase was in the social media sector, where
phishing attacks increased 241% between the first quarter of last
year and this year.
Financial brands are being used by cyber-criminals to attract
consumers struggling during harsh economic conditions to online
scams.
Between September 2008 and April 2009 there were 10,000 phishing
attacks on four banks.
MarkMonitor searched the web for references to four leading US
and international bank brands as well as recession-related keywords
such as mortgage, refinance and unemployed. It uncovered 10,000
phishing attacks which was 36% higher than the previous six
months.
It scanned 134 million public domain records and searched
billions of web pages and spam e-mail messages in the six-month
period.