Phishing websites pocket $3 billion in China

New Delhi, Jan 15 (ANI): Over 44 million personal computer users became victims of phishing websites in 2010, rendering a loss of three billion dollars in China, suggests a new report.

According to the report released by Beijing Rising Information Technology Co, one of China's top computer security service providers, 1.75 million phishing websites were detected in 2010, more than 10 times the number in 2009.

Phishing is the fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by pretending to be a reliable entity, reports the China Daily.

According to the report, online gamers and online banking customers were the worst hurt by phishing activities in 2010.

The report cited a case in which an online banking user was cheated by phishing software called "super online banking Trojan".

Rising said the surge in phishing activities was partly due to the rapid development of China's e-commerce sector, which has resulted in a large amount of online capital flow.

Moreover, Su Huiyan, an e-commerce analyst with iResearch, an IT consultancy, said, "But security services and users' security awareness have not grown to keep pace with the development of e-commerce, leaving it vulnerable to computer viruses and phishing activities that undermine the development of e-commerce in China."

"Once they are tricked, some customers will lose their trust in e-commerce and stop shopping online forever," added Su. (ANI)