According to the latest research, internet shoppers are most at risk than ever from online fraud.

Money lost to fraudsters specifically using some form of banking phishing scam has risen by a whopping 185 percent in the first six months of 2008 alone according to Apacs. Over the past two years, phishing has increased four fold, with losses for the banking industry up £7.5 million between January and June of this year when compared to the same time period last year.

Phishing e-mails and scams are where the user receives an e-mail from their banking institution asking them to log on to their account, perhaps because there has been an update to the site. Users are then directed to a fake webpage, which often looks almost identical to the real banking website, where the ‘login’. The login will fail, however the details the user has entered will be stored by the fake site for retrieval and use later.

Under current guidelines, as long as the customer is not negligent or fraudulent themselves, the bank should refund any money lost. However increasing numbers of banks are refusing to refund customers who have been victims of a phishing attack as they claim the customers have been negligent in their actions.

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