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Consumers learning to recognise online scams, expert says

Online banking has been gaining popularity in recent months and consumers involved in it are defying countless fraudsters by learning to recognise phishing scams designed to steal their details, an expert has said.

According to the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), the increasing consumer awareness of online threats is down to banks' efforts to educate their customers.

"I think everyone [banks] is making a concerted effort to educate their customers about phishing scams," said Michelle Meyer from Apacs.

"I think that can be seen in our last press release which showed that although the number of attacks was going up, the number of victims wasn't necessarily."

According to Apacs, 2007 saw the total losses for online banking fraud decrease by 33 per cent from 2006 to register £22.6 million.

This is despite the number of phishing scams rising by 180 per cent on 2007. So far 20,000 incidents were registered in the first half of this year alone.

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