Phishing attacks by hackers against online consumers have become so widespread that an estimated 57 million Americans likely have received these fraudulent e-mails, according to a new study by Gartner, Inc.
Direct losses from identity theft fraud against these phishing attack victims cost US banks and credit card issuers about $1.2 billion last year.
Phishing occurs when a dishonest online marketer sends an e-mail that contains a link to a fraudulent Web site where the users are asked to provide personal account information. The e-mail and Web site typically are disguised to appear as if coming from a legitimate financial institution or online marketer.
According to the survey, approximately 30 million adult Internet users believe they have definitely experienced a phishing attack, and another 27 million believe they have observed what looked like a phishing attack.
In addition, 76% of the known or suspected attacks occurred since October and another 16% occurred during the six months before then. Thus the combined results suggest that 92% of these phishing attacks took place in the past year.
The survey, poling 5,000 adult Internet users, was completed in April.
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