Online casinos the target in phishing attacks

29.02.2008

The major Internet security software company Symantec, which markets under the Norton brand has warned that email fraudsters are increasingly targeting customers of online casinos with phishing attacks. The company claims that a wave of such approaches has targeted online gamblers at Internet casinos run from Antigua and the Dutch Antilles, and there is a real need for users to be alert.

The trend surfaced when Symantec tracked a large number of attacks on small countries and traced the activity back to attempts to sucker online gamblers at a number of unnamed online casinos. The security company warns all Internet users to beware of phishing fraudsters, who typically try to trick users into divulging credit card and personal information which will enable their online accounts to be raided, or used in other fraudulent ways.

Because they are usually domiciled in different countries to those of their victims, phishers need to employ middlemen to take money from compromised online bank accounts and wire it to them, typically using hard to trace Western Union money transfers.