There has been a dramatic reduction in the proportion of phishing emails targeted at the customers of PayPal and its parent company eBay, according to Sophos, an IT security and control firm.
Source: Sophos
SophosLabs research shows that in September 2007, only 21 percent of phishing emails purported to come from the two well-known companies, as compared to 85 percent a year ago.
“In September 2006, almost nine out of ten phishing emails were trying to steal information from unwary eBay/PayPal customers, now it’s more like one in five. That’s an impressive turnaround by anyone’s standards,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
“PayPal and eBay users are much less likely to be targeted by virtual muggers, in part due to the efforts the firms have made in educating their customers about what to look out for, and how to protect themselves. The phishers are not turning away from their life of crime, however. They are now turning to a bigger pool of potential victims.” [Source: Sophos]
Cluley described it as a great news but warned Internet users to remain on guard against the threat. “Phishers continue to target a wide variety of organisations in their pursuit of easy money,” he said.
I almost responded to a bogus email I received the same week I signed up for PayPal last year, asking me to verify certain details by clicking on a link. The only thing that raised the red flag was the fact that the email was sent to an address not related to my registration with PayPal.
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