Over 70% of Indian Internet Users Vulnerable to Phishing Scams

VeriSign, which has recently commissioned a survey, shows that almost 76% of Internet surfers in the Indian subcontinent face the risk of online fraud primarily due to their failure in recognizing phishing scams.

Tim Callan, Vice President of Product Marketing at VeriSign, says that as 9 out of ten individuals in India are exposed to Internet phishing, it is extremely important that all online businesses should devise a way to enable an effortless distinction between a legitimate website and a fraudulent, phishing site, as reported by CIOL on June 19, 2009.

According to Callan, with the Extended Validation approach, an owner of a site makes circumstances easier for Internet surfers to determine if they are on an authentic online site.

In India, people who are most adept at recognizing a phishing website are within 18-24 years of age while those within 45-54 years are 14% less adept at recognizing such a site. India represents the only nation where women and men are not differentiated in their capability for recognizing a phishing website.

The survey has found that the majority of people who are at risk from phishing attacks are the elderly and middle aged individuals.

Andrew McClelland, Director of Business Management at a UK-based industry group IMRG, comments that phishing is still a dominant challenge facing retailers on the Internet, as reported by techtree on June 20, 2009.

According to McClelland, just one phishing assault is enough to drastically bring down the trust of people in an online seller. Once that happens, it becomes extremely hard to recover and since the competition is rife, sellers can hardly allow such a loss, he added.

In conclusion, the survey indicates that online frauds and phishing scams have resulted in suspicion and worry among Internet buyers. To get back their faith, website owners need to prove to end-users that the former are actually what they claim to be and the latter's transactions are completely safe.

Among the nations chosen for the survey i.e. Sweden, Germany, Denmark, USA, UK, Australia and India, the country which has the minimum chances of recognizing a phishing site is the USA.

Related article: Opera 9.1 Browser Introduces Phishing Alert

» SPAMfighter News - 6/30/2009