As security and AV companies scramble to put out protection against Internet fraud and spam, phishers take attacks deeper: targeting high-income Internet consumers.

Gartner Research, in its recent study on phishing attacks, found in a survey of 5000 adults residing in the US that high-income (earning over $100k/year) adults are targeted by phishing attacks.

Public service announcements (PSAs) online and through other media, as well as consumer education campaigns launched by government agencies did not help curb consumer non-awareness. Although high-income respondents tend to successfully avoid phishing attacks, once they are hit, their losses skyrocket.

Also featured in this research is the not-so-new way of survival for phishers: constant changing of URLs. Phishers host malicious URLs for a limited time only. And by the time cyber law enforcers get a lead on the URLs, the phishers have already dumped these URLs and moved on.

Read more here: http://asia.internet.com/news/article.php/3642971

Additionally, phishing is also a booming problem in the UK. Losses to online fraud not only tripled but grew “16-fold”, as measured by UK’s Association of Payment Clearing Services based on recorded losses by banks with online facilities.

Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6122116.stm