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Phishing scams rise 50 per cent in a month

Feb 17, 2004 12:23AM PST

Tuesday 17th February 2004

Phishing attacks, the latest scourge of the Internet, grew by 50 per cent in January while there were signs that the phishers are developing new techniques to get hold of personal information.
The rise is reported in the latest Phishing Attacks Trend Report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). An average 5.7 attacks are now sent out every day.

As a form of mass email phishing attacks are a variant on spam, but differ in that they masquerade as official emails - usually from banks or other financial institutions - asking the recipient to return passwords, card numbers and the like. According to the APWG up to five per cent of recipients reply, making this potentially a highly lucrative scam.

More: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=53644

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