Risk: Informational
Websense Security Labs has issued figures showing a massive increase in phishing web sites. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), the number of phishing scam web sites is rising by roughly 50 per cent month on month.
Phishing sites trick people into revealing confidential information such as social security numbers and credit card information by imitating legitimate business sites.
However, Websense's research also shows that a new type of phishing web site has emerged. These do not imitate established companies, but pretend to be an entirely new company, offering products or services over the Internet.
Accordingly, Websense advises punters to watch out for the following:
- * Fraudulent pharmacy, banks, mortgage and loan web sites. These are reckoned to be the most popular scam portals.
- * Sites lacking proper contact info. Most scam web sites have fake contact information, don't have any contact information (except occasional email), or the sites are out of service.
- * Short life: Fraud-based web sites survive an average of 8.5 days - longer than phishing sites but a good indicator of nefarious activity.
- * Where's the site based? The majority of fraud-based web sites are hosted outside of the USA.
And, naturally, you should never give confidential information to anyone unless you are absolutely certain that they are legit.