Spear Phishing.(internet fraud)

Newsweek International, February, 2007 by Sutherland, Benjamin

Byline: Benjamin Sutherland

Phishing is a game of numbers. Fraudsters pump out thousands of e-mails that persuade some recipients to click a link to, say, a phoney financial institution's Web site, where they divulge bank and credit-card details. Because Internet users are wising up, phishers have devised a new approach: "spear phishing," with barbs customized for each victim.

Spear phishers gather information, usually on the Internet, about an individual, and then craft a personalized e-mail more likely to dupe the mark. According to the FBI, the personalization method has proved so profitable that a significant number of spear phishers, principally located outside the United States, began applying it to death-threat extortion e-mails for the first...

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