The majority of phishers target users of the auction site eBay and payment service PayPal, according to a security company.

Researchers at Sophos found that 54.3 per cent of phishing emails caught by its network of spam traps during the year were targeting PayPal users, while 20.9 per cent were aimed at users of the eBay auction service.

The company had earlier discovered that 58 per cent of people receive at least one phishing attack every day.

‘The reason why the phishers focus so much on PayPal and eBay is because they are so popular around the world,’ said Graham Cluley of Sophos. ‘Although bank customers do also suffer from phishing attacks, they tend to be less likely to have the global reach that these net giants have.’

Both eBay and PayPal are members of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and both have published tutorials and guidelines on recognising phishing emails and websites.

‘PayPal and eBay have worked hard to educate and protect their customers from these kind of attacks,’ Mr Cluley added, ‘but the best solution is for computer users to be more savvy about securing their identity in the first place, and think before they click.’

Posted: 07|28|06 at 7:52 am. Filed under: Auction News.