Online Security, a global provider of computer forensics and information technology risk mitigation since 1997   Original Source:    http://www.tumbleweed.com/company/press_releases/2004/2004-03-19.html Reports of Email Fraud and Phishing Attacks Increase By 60% In February Analysis of Unique Phishing Attacks Submitted to www.antiphishing.org Show A Significant Increase over January Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:TMWD - News) and the Anti-Phishing Working Group today released the “Phishing Attack Trends Report” for February 2004, an analysis of phishing scam attacks submitted to www.antiphishing.org, the Internet’s most comprehensive archive of email fraud and phishing attacks. This analysis identifies that email fraud and phishing attacks grew by more than 60% in February as compared to January, with an average of 9.7 new, unique attacks sent out to millions of consumers each day. A copy of the report may be downloaded free of charge at www.antiphishing.org Phishing attacks involve the mass distribution of "spoofed" email messages with return addresses, links, and branding which appear to come from banks, insurance agencies, retailers or credit card companies. These fraudulent messages are designed to fool the recipients into divulging personal data such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers and passwords, social security numbers, etc. Because these emails look "official," between 1% and 5% of recipients may respond to them, resulting in financial losses, identity theft, and other fraudulent activity. In addition to the direct cost of fraud and the lingering effects of identity theft for consumers, this growing application of criminal spam threatens the integrity of companies that do business online. In February, there were 282 new, unique phishing attacks reported to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. This was a 60% increase over the number of attacks reported in January, and a 163% increase over December 2003. While the average number of phishing attacks per day in February was 9.7, analyzing this information on a weekly basis shows an increasing trend with a peak of 12.4 attacks per day in the third week of February. Other interesting results from this analysis include the following: The company most-targeted by phishing attacks in February was, once again, eBay The most-targeted industry sector was Financial Services The Financial Services sector also sustained the most growth in terms of number of phishing attacks as compared to other industries In February, the identity of Regulations.gov, a government agency website, was spoofed in a phishing attack designed to steal consumer’s personal information For more information and analysis, please download a copy of the “Phishing Attack Trends Report” for February 2004 free of charge at www.antiphishing.org "Phishing attacks continue to increase both in number and in sophistication, " said Dave Jevans, Chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group and a Senior Vice President at Tumbleweed Communications. "We are seeing more use of Java-script, pop-ups and cross-site scripting techniques to fool even sophisticated users of the Internet. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, with over 200 members, was founded as an industry resource to address this critical challenge to individuals and companies on the Internet. At stake is our very trust that the Internet can be relied upon for safe and secure commerce and communications."