Phishing: where is it going?

Amongst all fraud related to the online banking identity theft remains, probably, the biggest headache of respective authorities and users themselves causing Americans $45.3 billion in losses within 2007, however as it was recently announced there's a slight but noticeable tendency shown in decreasing number of cases related to ID theft. Losses in online banking segment have dropped 11% in comparison to $51 billion reached in 2006. The average loss fell 6 percent from $5,920 to $5,574. Last year we have witnessed, probably, one of the largest thefts of data, estimated loss of  45.7 million credit and debit cards reported by discount retailer TJX Cos, famous owner of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Meanwhile, with the strength of the online banking security the hackers are more and more focusing on the mobile banking as the most unsecured channel of banking. In accordance to Juvenil research about 48% of 25 top listed US financial institutions don't have any reliable multi-level authentication system. The new phone-based fraud methods are developing: let's say people are calling from "non-profit organizations" or naming themselves the representative of any presidential candidate asking to donate and in between divulge the financial sensitive information. The "vishing" schemes become extremely popular: in difference to phishing that redirects user to the fake bank web site, vishing directs callers to rogue interactive voice response systems that fakes the real bank mobile system and allows to catch the account information. Together with mail-fraud, the mobile fraud shows tremendous increase from 3% in 2006 to 40% in 2007. wireless accounts have reached 32% of fraudulent new account openings in 2007 in difference from 19% in 2006.

Let us remind you that year of 2008 was announced by anti-fraud experts the year of the iPhone fraud that would flood merging markets with a tremendous wave of losses an number of cases related to the ID theft resulted by mobile banking.

Natalia, reporter of Ecommerce Journal