• AFP, Monday, March 20, 2006 10:30 AM

Phishing scams, which are fraudulent e-mails that request personal information and appear as though they come from a trusted source, are becoming more sophisticated, says a new AFP report. Often, these e-mails come from phishers posing as banks, saying they need to "verify" your account information, or that someone has gained "unauthorized access" to your account. A survey last year from First Data Corp. found that 43 percent of US adults had received at least one of the bogus e-mails. Of those, one in 20, or about 4.5 million people, gave up the requested information. Half of those ended up being victims of theft or identity fraud. Many US victims ended up giving out their social security numbers, which can be used to open bank or credit accounts. Experts, gathering at a recent conference on the subject of online fraud, said victims on average reported losses of $600, but where social security numbers were concerned, the damage tended to be more severe. Privacy and fraud protection specialists from companies like Microsoft and American Express discussed the need for a universal authentication system, to help consumers detect bogus e-mail. Symantec recently identified 7.92 million daily phishing attempts, an increase of over 5.5 million in the last six months. That's an amazing increase--and many believe the problem will only worsen. If ever there was a reason to rally behind the new push towards charging for bulk commercial e-mails, this would be it.

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