Are People Catching On To Phishers?

from the the-waters-are-phished-out dept

The fact that phishing scammers have to keep modifying and adjusting their scams, isn't that surprising -- but it may show that the education effort against phishing has been working. A new study suggests that, while the phishing scams have become much more sophisticated, not that many people are getting caught in phishing nets. While some, obviously, still are falling for the scams, it seems that people may finally be paying attention to the websites they end up on, and what sorts of information they're asking for. This supports studies from earlier this year noting that most identity theft still occurs offline, and online identity theft still isn't that big a problem. That doesn't mean the education campaign shouldn't continue, but it seems that the threat may be much smaller than everyone's being told. Update: Then again, maybe it's all in how you spin it. Another report talking about the same exact study spins it by suggesting that a "worrying" number of people are falling victim to phishing. It all depends on your definition of "worrying," I guess.
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