Phishing scam reports skyrocket in April

Reports of a type of online crime known as "phishing" surged by almost 200 percent in April, according to figures from a computer security industry group.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) received reports of more than 1,100 unique phishing campaigns in April, a 178 percent increase from the previous month, according to figures shared with the IDG News Service. The reports represent a significant increase in phishing scams, which capture personal information from Internet users with a combination of unsolicited commercial ("spam") e-mail messages and Web sites designed to look like legitimate online businesses, said Dan Maier, director of product marketing at Tumbleweed Inc. and an APWG spokesman.

Source: MacCentral

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I have been meaning to mention this here. I have been getting a TON of phishing emails lately. I got 3 PayPal ones today! Not so much for the eBay (only a couple), but I have been getting Amazon ones now. That is new. I would say I have been averaging 10 phishing emails a week.

The Amazon phishing ones do not pass my SPAM filter, but the PayPal and eBay ones cut right through POPFile. So those people doing the Amazon phishing - you are not doing a good job!

These phishing SPAMS are not going to go away until people STOP FILLING IN THE BLANKS. If everyone would tell someone about these phishing SPAMS then maybe this would stop. But I do not see that happen. People will still get fooled, for some reason or another.

This phishing happens for the same reason that normal SPAM happens. If one out of one 100, 1,000, 10,000 is successful, they are a success.

Is SMTP Authentication the answer to all these SPAM related problems? I don't like playing the pessimist but I don't think SMTP Authentication will curb SPAM one bit. Now, I would love to see some kind of authentication or certificate system for email. I say this because we see how spammers get through even the smartest spam filters in the world. I have heard of spammers defeating Six Apart's TypeKey comment authentication system already. I have high hopes for a new standard secure email protocol. I am just not seeing a breakthrough yet to be optimistic about it yet.

Please people, will you all tell your mother, brother, father, grandma, girlfriend, boyfriend, dog, whatever to be careful with "phishing" SPAM. They may have heard it all before, but it does not hurt to hear it again. And hopefully the more they hear it, the more they will think about telling others.

Article Author: Ken Edwards

Ken Edwards is the Gaming Editor at Blogcritics, and calls Breaking Windows home. Ken works part time for Student Publications at BGSU as the Webmaster and System Administrator. He is also a freelance web developer.

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