Phishing & spamvertising Incidences Decrease in Hong Kong

According to HKIRC (Hong Kong Internet Registration Corp.), the total number of phishing and spamvertising incidences employing '.hk' domains has been steadily declining since May 2008.

While phishing is an online fraud carried out by an e-mail for stealing personal credentials or identity, spamvertising is an activity for promoting services or goods by bulk e-mails, said security experts.

In the 3rd week of May 2009, HKIRC published a report with the most recent statistics for spamvertising and phishing incidences employing '.hk' domain between May 2008 and April 2009. The report states that a mean of 7.6 such incidences was observed for each month from May 2008 to October 2008, and another mean of 4.1 incidences was noticed per month from November 2008 to April 2009.

This, according to HKIRC analysts, demonstrates that the security of '.hk' domains was significant and consistent owing to the company's close collaboration with other agencies (that conduct monitoring functions) as well as due to the strict measures of the company to fight malevolent online operations during recent years.

The security specialists state that the popular topics of spamvertising comprise online pharmaceuticals (without prescriptions), reproduction, jewelry and watches, and online educational qualifications.

Many other products are also occasionally advertised via spamvertising that companies located in developing nations might regard as an inexpensive means to reach out to a larger audience. However, it is advisable not to buy any good or service advertised through spam as spam messages neither have a legal accountability nor are traceable, in addition to being associated with malicious software.

Furthermore, '.hk' domains are employed for fake websites related to financial businesses such as Alliance Leicester Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Capital One Bank, HSBC, Sun Trust and eBay. Sometimes they are used for non-financial websites that relate to casino, porn or pharmacy.

It is worth noting that in an effort to make the identification of '.hk' website owners simpler for Internet surfers as well as to boost the surfers confidence on such websites, HKIRC is teaming up with E-Mice Solutions of Hong Kong to initiate a scheme, it appropriately calls 'Trusted.hk.'

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 5/29/2009