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Consumers not savvy enough to spot phishing scams

An internet expert specialising in helping online shoppers has claimed that phishing scams and other socially engineered internet security threats keep succeeding due to ignorance from consumers.

Commenting on recent data from the UK payments association Apacs, showing that online banking fraud losses had mounted to £52.5 million, Shopsafe.co.uk said consumers are not savvy enough to stay safe.

According to Simon Crisp, director at Shopsafe.co.uk, internet users need to be more suspicious about any emails they receive and need to be sharp enough to spot phishing and fraud-related emails.

"You just never ever trust anybody when they ask you for your username and password. Email is no different to on the phone," he said, adding that "people need to become a lot more sceptical about it".

He went on to say that education about online threats is vital and a similar approach to drink-driving campaigns needs to be adopted to stamp out ignorance.

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