Phishing Attacks could Dampen Brand Reputation

A survey on November 26, 2007 by YouGov on behalf of Cloudmark Inc. revealed that phishing attacks are dramatically affecting public trust in the veracity of consumer brands. Of the people surveyed, 42% said that their reliability on a brand is likely to decline if they got a phishing e-mail supposedly from that business association.

The survey poll also found that most consumers believe that they themselves are responsible for their defense against phishing scams, along with their ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and those service providers who allow phishing e-mails to pass.

YouGov Plc selected a sample of 1,960 adult consumers as participants in the survey. It conducted the fieldwork during November 12 to 14, 2007. The figures compiled were weighted for calculations and they represented British adults aged 18 years and above. The survey was conducted over the Internet.

The practice of phishing is not new. This type of fraud has been happening for many years and it was present even before the start of computer age. At that time, scammers phished over the telephone and it was called social engineering. The new part is the delivery vehicle such as the phony Web pages and spam mails.

The survey further found that 41% of respondents would begin trusting a bank less if they get a phishing message supposedly from the bank. Other respondents who felt similarly for a service provider counted to 40%, for a shopping site that transacted online 36%, and for a site on social networking 33%.

Commenting on phishing, Technology Chief, Neil Cook, at Cloudmark said that it was a well-orchestrated and sophisticated crime. The attackers here use e-mail scams to compromise potential victims' financial information. Then they spread the stolen data across an efficient and stratified economy by selling it off for profits. Webitpr reported this on November 26, 2007.

Another YouGov survey carried out recently on behalf of Microsoft found that nearly 50% of adults in Britain felt worried when they gave personal information online. The respondents considered information on demography, gender and date of birth to be most valuable to black marketers and normal marketers but for different reasons.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 12/6/2007