Email phishing scams soar by 180%

Email scams in which fraudsters try to trick people into revealing their bank account details have soared by 180% in the past year, figures in the UK showed today.

Payments body APACS said there had been more than 20,600 phishing incidents involving UK bank and building society customers during the first six months of 2008, compared with around 7,200 in the same period of 2007.