A large-scale study of Internet safety showed an exponential increase in scams targeting users of social networking sites like Facebook. The half Internet security made by computer giant Microsoft, made based on data from 600 million computers, found evidence of an increase of 1,200% in phishing attacks last year.
In the attacks known as phishing, criminals send messages to Internet users apparently legitimate, appearing to have been sent by friends and colleagues. With these messages, spammers are computer users to give personal information such as passwords or bank numbers.
According to the BBC's technology correspondent Mark Gregory, an increase in fraud on social networking sites and social networks is not surprising given the growing popularity of such sites among users, but the proportion of the increase in phishing cases in these sites of great concern .
According to the study of Microsoft, these attacks represented a year earlier, less than 10% of all fraud committed through social networking sites. In late 2010, this proportion increased to 85%.
Already detection programs to infect computers with advertisements in the form of pop-up increased by 70% between mid-2010 until the end of the year, according to AFP, quoting the report.
Microsoft has noticed a "bias" of criminal behavior on the Internet, with a large increase in fraud tactics disguised in the form of gifts or marketing, according to AFP.
The research also shows two distinct trends in criminal activity online. On one hand, there is an increase in fraud-based scams - involving strategies to deceive many people to give a few personal information.
On the other hand, there is also an increase in more sophisticated fraud techniques, such as scams involving manipulation of computer programs, aimed at stealing large amounts of money from a few carefully chosen victims.
