Lending Crisis is Boom Time for Phishers

Security firm SonicWall said Thursday that it has been seeing e-mails that attempt to lure people to fake bank Web sites, where they are asked to re-verify their personal and bank information as part of a merger.

In one example that targets people affected by the Chase acquisition of Washington Mutual, the e-mail asks recipients to click on a link and confirm their identity so Chase can "activate new security features for our new and old online banking customers."

The link goes to a fake Chase Web site that asks for account log-in and other information, said Andrew Klein, a product manager at SonicWall. The scammers are gathering the information to sell to cybercriminals who will use it to transfer money out of victims' accounts or commit identity fraud, he said.

Phishers and scammers commonly exploit news events to lure victims to sites that contain malware or that ask them to supply information. Cybercriminals are even using Google Trends to find out what Web search terms are the most popular in order to make sure they have timely and relevant content on their sites with which to attract victims.