Despite a concerted effort by the UK banking community, regulators and the UK government it seems that more and more people are falling victim to online banking scams. So called "phishing" attacks have grown in number from just 1,700 five years ago to over 51,000 last year. Reported online banking losses from fraud have increased from £23.2 million in 2005 to nearly £60 million in 2009 and looks set to rise for the foreseeable future.

There has been a significant change in strategy by the online fraudsters who recently switched from attacking internal banking systems to attacking individuals in their home. It is unlikely that anybody reading this article will not have received an attempted online fraud e-mail which purports to be from a valid banking company. Many people have fallen for these scams and clicked on links in these e-mails which effectively open up their system to viruses and key logging software which then allows the fraudsters to record usernames and passwords.

The increase in online fraud to a £60 million in 2009 is an alarming figure in itself but there is a feeling that many people are too embarrassed to step forward after becoming the victim of online fraud so this figure is likely to be significantly higher.

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