Bank Technology News | December 2007
An online survey has pegged the soaring losses from phishing attacks this year at $3.2 billion, according to new research from Gartner. Around 3.6 million U.S. adults lost money in phishing attacks for a one-year period through August 2007 – a dramatic rise from 2.3 million in 2006. Phishers are targeting attacks on debit cards, through which 47 percent of respondents were victimized (compared to 32 percent through credit card, and 24 percent through a bank account). The average dollar loss did decline, however, from $1,244 last year to $866 in 2007, but the added number of victims pushed up overall losses. Also improving were recoveries, with 1.6 million victims getting back around 64 percent of 2007’s losses.
"Phishing attacks are becoming more surreptitious and are often designed to drop malware that steals user credentials and sensitive information from consumer desktops," says Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Anti-phishing detection and prevention solutions are available but not utilized widely enough to stop the damage. These must be deployed and combined with solutions that also proactively detect and stop malware-based attacks."
PayPal and eBay continue to be the phisher’s preferred brands for spoofing, but crooks have also chosen new avenues such as charities, foreign businesses and even electronic greeting cards sent over the Web, according to Stamford, CT-based Gartner.
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