CBC News Indepth: How safe is your computer?

"The vandals are becoming fraudsters and electronic pickpockets."

Identity thieves are using more sophisticated methods to get consumers to divulge their personal and confidential information.

Bill Rosenkrantz, group product manager for internet security firm Symantec, says that in the last seven years, the internet has gone from an information source to an ATM: "Thirty-five to 40 per cent in the U.S. use the internet for financial transactions."

"Historically, hackers and virus writers would attack systems for ego's sake. But now it's financial," according to Rosenkrantz. "The vandals are becoming fraudsters and electronic pickpockets."

The past year has seen the rise of "spoofing" and "phishing," and of the number of home users falling victim to these online scams.

Phishing is fraudulent e-mail that tries to dupe recipients into providing their personal and financial information, such as credit card numbers or online banking passwords.

It works this way: By "spoofing" e-mails, phishing attacks make it appear as if the messages comes from a legitimate organization that a home user may have dealt with, such as a bank or a credit card company. The e-mail may request account details for "urgent security reasons." The message may also point the recipient to a "spoofed" website that resembles the real financial site.

Phishers are able to get up to five per cent of recipients to reply, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association that monitors phishing scams worldwide. The organization points out that the most targeted industry for phishing attacks is financial services.

In 2004, for the month of December alone, the organization reported 9,019 new phishing e-mail messages, and 1,707 active phishing sites with 55 brand names hijacked.

Highlights of the 2004 phishing survey

Only 16 per cent of Canadians with a personal e-mail account and internet access were familiar with the term phishing.

Once the term "phishing" was explained, 31 per cent noted they had received at least one request for personal information that they believed to be fraudulent.

Four per cent reported that they'd been a victim of phishing and had revealed private information.

Only 51 per cent said they would report future phishing attempts.

66 per cent said they were concerned about phishing.

Source: Visa Canada

The rise of online fraud brought the RCMP, the Competition Bureau and Visa Canada together to launch a consumer awareness campaign in November 2004. According to the Visa survey of 1,200 Canadians, the majority of respondents with an e-mail address and internet access have never heard of "phishing," despite increased reports of phishing incidents. If their bank or credit card company requested personal information via e-mail, nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed admitted they would likely supply that information.

How to avoid getting "phished" in