Sudden increase in phishing emails?

[PeteMorris]

Am I being singled out? I've had 3 phishing emails in the last 4 days! I'm using hotmail and I don't usually get a lot of spam, and I certainly don't give away my email 'willy-nilly' on line. I've had 2 perporting to be from Halifax Building Society saying following several failed login attempts on my account (I don't have one!), they need me to login to verify my account details (I've not even looked at the link). Another one I had was a very similar one from Natwest.

 

When you mark it as a phishing scam (in hotmail) do they actually act upon it?

 

Are the phishers trying to accumulate some extra Christmas money?

[Rich]

You need to contact the Banks concerned and tell them about the phishing attempts being done in "their" name.. I used to get loads, but then I set up spam fllters on my main email and I never get any nowadays.

[BarryRiley]

It's probably not an influx of different people trying to scam you, just the same person/people trying over and over again (hoping that they eventually get your bank correct)

[PeteMorris]

I've forwarded the email to security@halifax.co.uk and explained that I don't have an account with them, and it's the second one I've received in 2 days.

 

I also had a look at the link page. At a glance it looks 'real'. There's 2 boxes to enter a username and password. Plus all the other usual stuff you might see on a on-line banking page, but none of the links work. It's really quite ameteurish.

 

Here's the link!

 

http://www.suprkstor.net/mre/check.php?luzon=100355&verifyID=51512

 

It annoys me that these clowns (crooks / thieves) must send out thousands of these emails and some poor sods actually respond and get taken in.

[mikeG]

I often get email supposedly from Banks (and Paypal) saying my account has been used innapropriately and will I resubmit my details etc. I ignore them and mark them as 'phishing'. I also get a dozen a day offering viagra for sale and just about any other sort of drug. I mark these as 'phishing scam' but Hotmail seems unable to sort the wheat out from the chaff.

[ElasticMan]

You need to contact the Banks concerned and tell them about the phishing attempts being done in "their" name..

 

Don't bother - just delete them - no point risking opening them even. Just delete and mark as spam.

[Resident]

Phishing scams traditionally do seem to increase around christmas time.

 

If I were to guess the reason I would summise that it's because at this time we're spending more money than we do on average throughout the year with the gift buying.