Contact Us Resource Center RSS How to Buy  

› Home › News & Events › Press Releases

Reports of Email Fraud and Phishing Attacks Increase By 180% in April; Up 4,000% Since November

Over 1125 Unique Phishing Attacks Submitted to www.antiphishing.org

Redwood City, CA – May 24, 2004 – Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:TMWD - News) and the Anti-Phishing Working Group today released the “Phishing Attack Trends Report” for April 2004, an analysis of phishing scam attacks submitted to www.antiphishing.org, the Internet’s most comprehensive archive of email fraud and phishing attacks. This analysis identifies that email fraud and phishing attacks grew by more than 180% in April, with an average of almost 38 new, unique attacks sent out to millions of consumers each day. A copy of the report may be downloaded free of charge at http://www.antiphishing.org/APWG_Phishing_Attack_Report-Apr2004.pdf.

Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent websites to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers, ISPs and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them. The result of these scams is that consumers suffer credit card fraud, identity theft, and financial loss.

In April, there were 1,125 unique phishing attacks reported to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. This was a 180% increase over the number of attacks reported in March 2004, and represents a monthly growth rate of over 75% per month since December. While the average number of phishing attacks per day in April was 37.5, analyzing this information on a weekly basis shows an increasing trend with a peak of 39.9 attacks per day in the second week of April. Further, this marks the first time that we’ve seen more than 200 unique attacks in a week – occurring four times in April.
• The company most-targeted by phishing attacks in April was Citibank with 475 unique attacks. This represents the first time that eBay was not the most targeted company.
• The most-targeted industry sector was Financial Services with 832 unique attacks
• The Financial Services sector averaged almost 35 phishing attacks per company in April.
• In April, the new technique of creating “floating” windows over a user’s Address Bar, disguising the fact that the user is on a fraudulent website, continued to gain momentum and sophistication

For more information and analysis, please download a copy of the “Phishing Attack Trends Report” for April 2004 free of charge at http://www.antiphishing.org/APWG_Phishing_Attack_Report-Apr2004.pdf.

"As hackers, identity thieves, and virus writers continue to join forces, these attacks are increasing and becoming much more sophisticated -- to the point of being literally indistinguishable from legitimate email, even for technically savvy recipients,” said Dave Jevans, Chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group and Senior Vice President at Tumbleweed Communications. “This continues to pose a significant threat to the financial services and retail sectors”

About the Anti-Phishing Working Group
The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is focused on eliminating the problem of phishing and email spoofing attacks, by developing and sharing information about the problem, and promoting the visibility and adoption of industry solutions. Membership in the group is open to qualified financial institutions, corporations, law enforcement agencies, public policy groups and solution vendors.

The Web site of the Anti-Phishing Working Group is www.antiphishing.org. It serves as a public and industry resource for information about the problem of phishing and email fraud, including identification and promotion of pragmatic technical solutions that can provide immediate protection and benefits against phishing attacks. The analysis, forensics, and archival of phishing attacks to the Web site are currently powered by Tumbleweed Communications' Message Protection Lab™.

About Tumbleweed Communications Corp.
Tumbleweed is a leading provider of secure Internet messaging software products for enterprises. By making Internet communications secure, reliable and automated, Tumbleweed's anti-spam, email firewall, secure file transfer, secure email, and identity validation solutions help customers significantly reduce the cost of doing business. Tumbleweed products are used by millions of end-users and tens of thousands of corporations. Tumbleweed customers include ABN Amro, Bank of America Securities, Catholic Healthcare West, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), , St. Luke's Episcopal Healthcare System, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the US Navy and Marine Corps. Tumbleweed Communications was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. For additional information about Tumbleweed go to www.tumbleweed.com or call 650-216-2000.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
Tumbleweed cautions that forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on current plans and expectations, and that a number of factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the guidance given at this time. These factors are described in the Safe Harbor statement below.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to phishing techniques and patterns. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed's Form 10-K filed March 15, 2004 and Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2004.

Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release, including for example its guidance regarding its future performance, which represents the Company's expectations only as of the date of this release and should not be viewed as a statement about the Company's expectations after such date. Although this release may remain available on the Company's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that the Company is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.

###