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| 3.2 Billion Lost To Phishing in 2007 |
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 Gartner's latest survey into the realm of phishing attacks paints a rather bleak picture for 2007, with a record estimated loss of $3.2 Billion (that's Billion, with a B) U.S. Dollars. Overall loss per incident fell (to $886 from $1,244 lost on average in 2006), but the numbers of individuals who fell victim rose quite sharply from 2.3 Million in 2006 to a staggering 3.6 Million. Although online portals such as Paypal and eBay remained the most spoofed brands, it appears that phishers are getting more creative by utilizing fake electronic greetings cards, foreign businesses, and charitable organizations in their attacks on consumers. Furthermore, these criminals are increasingly targeting debit card and banking credentials rather than credit cards, because the fraud protection mechanisms there are far weaker, according to a study done at The University of California at Berkeley.Gartner's own survey conclusion indicates they see no easy way out for consumers, short of better filtering technologies applied at the email provider and ISP level. We see things differently. Treating the online world as if it were something magically different than "reality" when it comes to your personal financial information is naive in the extreme, and it's long past time for people to get this through there heads. The real weakness here is human gullibility, and the fix is a simple one if only people would take a simple lesson to heart. Most reasonable people wouldn't blurt out their personal financial information to a telemarketer or junk mail marketer, so why do they do it online? *NEVER* give out personal financial information in a transaction that you did not yourself originate. As in NEVER. People have been taken in by con-artists as long as there have been human's roaming the earth, and the solution to this behavior has been around just as long. Don't be a fool, and you won't be fooled. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           
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