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Major phishing attacks targeted thousands of American Express Co. and Bank of America Corp. customers Oct. 16 to 20, according to security firm MessageLabs Ltd. With phishing, criminals attempt to steal consumer payment information by posing as legitimate institutions in e-mail messages. Recent bank mergers and acquisitions have fraudsters increasing their attacks on potentially confused customers, says Paul Wood, a senior analyst for New York-based MessageLabs. "We've seen a huge jump in general with the timing of the credit crisis," he says. The company says it intercepted 7,000 phishing e-mails intended for BofA customers during a two-hour period on Oct. 16. The next day, it intercepted 15,000 e-mails intended for BofA customers and gathered 125,000 more on Oct.19 and Oct. 20, accounting for 16% of all phishing incidents over that span. On Monday, MessageLabs intercepted 35,000 e-mails intended for AmEx customers. Phishing e-mails are becoming more difficult for consumers to detect, Wood notes. Asking customers to go "green" and stop paper statements is becoming a popular technique used by fraudsters, according to Wood. Spam e-mails containing mortgage offers, debt-consolidation services and credit counseling also have increased. "As we go on towards the holiday season, we will see a huge volume of spam," Wood says.
