19 Feb 2010

Email scams 'now the most common'

Email scams have become the most common way for cybercriminals to target businesses and individuals, new figures have shown.

Greg Day, director of security strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for McAfee, said a combination of factors including the fact these scams are easy to set up, cheap to carry out and provide results mean more and more of these annoying - and potentially dangerous - emails are being sent.

He commented: "The success rate from my perspective is probably low per what you send out, but you can send out so many, they can have a very good growth on return."

According to research carried out by the Office of Fair Trading, 73 per cent of adults have received a scam email in the past year.

In comparison, 21 per cent of adults have received scams via a letter and 12 per cent via text message.