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Demand Remains High for Stolen Personal Data

by Warren Riddle on April 15, 2009 at 01:23 PM



While few businesses have made it through the current financial crisis unscathed, certain "entrepreneurs" continue to be successful: scam artists and con men. It can be difficult to stay abreast of such crooks' rapidly changing ploys, such as the recent phishing scam that promised expedited government stimulus checks, so we all need to exercise extreme caution whenever we are asked for personal information.

According to the security software firm Symantec, the demand for credit card and Social Security numbers, along with other forms of personal information, remains high, while new phishing scams continue to emerge. Some troubling statistics back up their assertions. From 2007 to 2008, Web sites hosting phishing scams increased by 66-percent. According to another study by Gartner, Inc., five million U.S. citizens lost money to phishing scams between September 2007 and September 2008, a 40-percent increase over the previous year.

For protection, consumers need to not only keep their anti-virus software up-to-date, but to also be wary of enticing new "opportunities." One scam which recently hit the Net preys on people's fears of the recession and the housing slump by offering bank-related benefits, such as low-interest loans and mortgage refinancing. According to Symantec, such scams comprise 75-percent of the phishing e-mails they investigated.


For in-depth protection tips, here's a list of popular phishing scams, in case you missed it. And, although cliches can seem hokey, one adage remains poignant given the exponential growth of personal information thefts: "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is." [From: AP Via: Newsvine]

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Tags: credit card fraud, CreditCardFraud, cyber crime, CyberCrime, identity theft, IdentityTheft, phishing scams, PhishingScams

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