The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning saying phishing gangs were using the current global financial crisis to extract valuable information from consumers.The news comes as a UK banking group reveals that phishing attacks were up more 180% in a year.
The FTC said that the current rapid changes in the banking world, where many institutions suddenly had new owners, could only help fraudsters keen to steal login and other personal details.
The FTC said in statement, "Scammers are taking advantage of upheavals in the financial marketplace to confuse customers into parting with valuable personal information."
It said it expected fraudsters to pose as the new owners of banks or the federal agencies charged with oversight of struggling institutions.
The FTC urged customers to be wary and not to reply to e-mail messages or pop ups that ask for personal or financial information even if they appeared to come from a bank. Customers should also scrutinise bank and credit card statements for unauthorised withdrawals or transfers.
Secure Computing the leading enterprise security software provider, said its October spam report showed that many of the banks and other financial institutions caught up in the turmoil were topping its list of phishing targets.
Chase, Wachovia and Bank of America were among the most popular targets for scammers. Secure Computing said that it expected British banks to also prove popular in the coming weeks as changes and mergers are completed.
In its second annual report, the All Parliamentary Group on ID Fraud said tighter credit lending rules would lead to more attempts to get at existing bank accounts.
"There is no longer a guarantee that they will get credit by applying assuming another person's identity, so they are instead tapping into accounts that already exist," read the report.
Fraud figures released in early October by the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), which represents UK banks, showed a steep rise in the number of phishing attacks even before the turmoil in the banking world began.
From January to June 2008 phishing attacks rose by 186% on the same period in 2007, it said. In total it saw more than 20,682 phishing incidents during that six month period.
With the global financial crisis looking to get worse before it gets better, banking customers in the US and UK are being encouraged to be extra vigilant when using online financial services.
