Phishing attacks rise as banks are distracted

With banks focused on shoring up liquidity and preventing runs on their shares, it seems online fraudsters are taking advantage of this opportunity to launch an ever increasing number of phishing attacks.

Brand monitoring specialists, Envisional identified almost half a million (460,000) separate phishing emails sent to bank customers in the six month period from April to September, with more than 170,000 in June alone (up 117% on June 2007).

According to Envisional, overall volumes of phishing emails sent to bank and insurance company customers were up 40% compared to 2007. It reports that one bank was hit by 350 separate attacks in one day.

Phishing emails which try to trick customers into giving away passwords and PINs, also demonstrated different targeting strategies, with 135,000 phishing emails targeting one specific bank in June. Phishers then changed tactics in July targeting two banks.