Frenetic cybercriminals are reportedly creating 57,000 malware-based websites per week to exploit high-profile brand names.
According to PandaLabs, eBay and Western Union-related URLs comprise 44 percent of all malicious sites – with Visa, Amazon, Bank of America and PayPal also “heavily” targeted by cybercriminals.
“When unwary users click on the [phony websites], their computers will either be infected or they will be directed to a landing page that appears legitimate,” explained PandaLabs technical director Luis Corrons.
“When they enter personal information on these malicious pages, that data will fall into the hands of criminals, who will then use it to commit financial fraud and other crimes.”
As such, Corrons recommended that users visit banking sites or online stores by typing in the address in the browser directly – rather than relying on search engines or links in an e-mail.
“Although search engines are making an effort to mitigate the situation by changing indexing algorithms, they have so far been unable to offset the avalanche of new websites being created by hackers every day,” he added.
