Phishing scams have increased from 1pc to 8.3pc of the total volume of spam generated since the beginning of 2005, it is claimed.
The number of emails generated between January and June, attempting to con recipients into handing over sensitive personal information, now equals that of adult spam, it is claimed.
Steve Purdham, chief technology officer at e-mail filtering firm SurfControl said: "As spam filtering technology becomes more comprehensive, fraudsters are becoming more devious in their techniques, using phishing attacks as an alternative source of commercial gain to previous spam campaigns that peddled cheap finance, herbal remedies, adult content etc. The increased threat is as much a risk to individuals as it is to businesses at large. We have seen the widespread utilisation of tactics that facilitate identity fraud as well as spyware that leaks sensitive company data. The focus is clearly financial gain but to a company the damaging affect such scams could have on brand reputation once you have breached the trust of your customers can be devastating. More must be done to educate all Internet users, whether consumers or workers utilising business systems, on the risks and the practices which can now be implemented to avoid being duped."
The evolution of phishing scams was highlighted recently, the firm adds, when reports were published about a new PayPal scam in which users receive an email from the PayPal registration department advising them that the system has been unable to process their most recent transaction, taking unsuspecting customers to a fake login page to verify details and account information.
