Phishing Attacks Rise Six-Fold on Indian Banks

According to the study by a security firm, Symantec, in a small time period of four months (October 2007-January 2008), Indian banking system has witnessed six fold increase in the phishing attacks, as reported by THE ECONOMIC TIMES on March 16, 2008.

The phishing attacks are a part of an internet fraud that steals valuable information like user IDs and passwords, social security numbers, credit cards details for financial gains. All these phishing attacks are executed via send-up emails and through fake Websites that tricks users and steal their personal details.

Symantec, the internet security firm in Pune, found that in the month of October last year (2007), Indian banks were attacked by 20 unique attacks and the figure has grown to 120 attacks in the month of January, 2008.

According to the report released by the Symantec, among the countries which hosted phishing Websites, India was ranked fourteenth. In terms of cities, Mumbai was ranked first with 38% phishing Websites, the trend followed by New Delhi with 29% of phishing Websites, and Bangalore and Chennai with each claiming 12% of phishing Websites. The Symantec' report further stated that the phishing messages all around the world are 196,860, which equates to an average of 1,088 phishing messages per day in the first half of 2007.

Prabhat Kumar Singh, the Director Security Response of Symantec, said that the phishing attacks are becoming subtle, localized, and target-specific and the increasing number of attacks symbolize that these attacks are getting successful day-to-day. With these increasing attacks phishers are now turning towards making money, as reported by THE ECONOMIC TIMES on March 16, 2008.

In a recent event, in the second week of March this year (2008), 63-year-old retired air force personnel, Shrikant Mahajan, a resident of Sangli, Mumbai, was deceive by an online phishing attacks and was robbed of a handsome amount of Rs 10.94 Lakh. Shrikant fell prey to online phishing scam. According to the police, Mahajan paid the amount for documentation to annex 9 Million UK Pound, which he was told he had got by winning a lottery. However, a 27-year-old Nigerian, Blesseo Osas, alias Mark Harry, has been arrested in the case.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 3/25/2008