Phishing attacks are spam messages that pose as legitimate mail from big-name banks, credit-card companies, and retailers. Links within the messages try to entice recipients to visit bogus Web sites, where they're told that their account information needs to be updated. Users who fall for the con divulge personal financial information, as credit-card and bank-account numbers, which is used by the attacker to siphon funds, purchase goods, or steal identities.
The number of unique scams spotted by SurfControl has grown 477%, from 33 to 155 in the first five months of this year, according to Susan Larson, SurfControl's VP of global content. In the last 12 months, she added, phishing scams have rocketed by more than 5,000%--from three in May 2003, to 155 in 2004).
Other phishing watchers have noted an even more dramatic rise in the raw numbers of phishing messages. In April, for instance, MessageLabs said it had seen phishing messages skyrocket from just 279 in September 2003, to 215,643 in March 2004.
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