phishing attacks soar

See BBC News "Cyber criminals step up the pace " 6/12/04

"So-called phishing attacks that try to trick people into handing over confidential details have boomed in 2004, say security experts. The number of phishing e-mail messages stopped by security firm MessageLabs has risen more than tenfold in less than 12 months. In 2004 it detected more than 18 million phishing e-mail messages.

Other statistics show that in 2004 73% of all e-mail was spam and one in 16 messages were infected with a virus."