Phishing scams cause online fraud to rise in the UK

There has been a massive increase in the number of attempted phishing attacks and a huge rise in the amount of money lost to online fraud in the United Kingdom, ZDNet UK reports.
The Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS) released card and online fraud figures on November 7 which showed phishing incidents have increased more than 1,500% year-on-year since 2005.
In the first half of 2005, just 312 separate phishing attacks aimed at UK users were recorded by APACS. From January to June 2006 there were 5,059 attacks, an increase of 1,521%.
This huge rise was linked to a 55% increase in money lost to online fraudsters in the same period. Banks lost GBP 22.5 mln ($42.9 mln) from January to June 2006, as opposed to GBP 14.5 mln ($27.6 mln) in the first half of 2005.