Phishing awareness up, anti-spyware unused

People are deleting or taking no action on phishing emails in greater numbers but one in three people have no anti-spyware software, according to research from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS),

The research showed that the number of people that were not fooled and took no action on phishing emails rose from 75 percent in 2006 to 82 percent last year.

APACS also claimed that criminals are continuing to target online banking customers through phishing and spyware scams, with credit card fraud accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in losses last year.

Richard Brown, chief executive of financial data analyst Moneynet, said: “Phishing is the curse of our modern age. Our site users are increasingly reporting more and more sophisticated email phishing scams.

“Clearly, thousands could be at risk from these clever scams," he added. "Consumers need to be constantly vigilant."