02 Feb 2010

Online scams 'still finding victims'

The number of people falling for phishing and other online scams is a disappointing statistic, it has been claimed.

Tony Neate, managing director of Get Safe Online, said given the amount of publicity these malware emails have received over the past few years, it is surprising to see so many people are still be suckered in by cyber criminals.

He commented: "We all use computers now, so these criminal terms such as phishing need to be learnt by everybody. It's not just a technological issue, phishing is now as big a problem as any other crime that takes place."

Mr Neate added he had hoped that by now, the message would have got across to the public to act with more caution regarding unsolicited emails.

According to the Office of Fair Trading, across the UK, up to 11 per cent of the population claim to have been the victim of an online scam at some point in their life.