How to stop phishermen from catching

It seems like the whole world has gone phishing in the last couple of weeks. Twitter, Facebook – even my own e-mail inbox is full of this crap.

Phishing attacks that insert viruses and other malware, steal account numbers and otherwise try to cause users financial harm are on the rise, says Brian Yoder, vice president of engineering for CyberDefender, whose business is providing internet security to consumers and small businesses.

Yoder says the attackers used to be pimply faced 14-year-olds trying to prove how smart they were, but today's phisherman is a full-fledged crook, probably based in an Eastern European country and expert at avoiding or paying off law enforcement.

As anybody who spends more than a few minutes online knows, these guys send out millions of phishing e-mails a day. If only 1% of the people who receive them respond and get taken for even a few bucks, these crooks do well.