Consumer Reports: Percent Of Successful Phishing Scams Remaining Constant
Written by Evan SchumanU.S. consumers lost more than $7 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes, according to a report issued this week by Consumer Reports.
The magazine survey “showed that consumers face a 1 in 4 chance of succumbing to an online threat and becoming a cybervictim, a number that has slightly decreased since last year,” the story said. “The number of consumers responding to e-mail phishing scams has remained constant at eight percent. Consumer Reports projects that one million U.S. consumers lost billions of dollars over the past two years to such scams.”
The most interesting part is that the percent of consumers being scammed–at least via Phishing–has stayed roughly constant, suggesting that cyberthieves are ratcheting up their tactics at the exact same rate that consumers are becoming to their old ways. Not one of the more encouraging stats.
Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code.
-Marc
