Cyber criminals have no prejudice when it comes to using well known businesses to launch phishing scams. These criminals send bulk email campaigns hoping to lure in potential customers for profit.

It’s very common for criminals to use well known businesses in their scams, because people who do business with these popular companies may fall for the scam. Many of these phishing scams are well engineered and are often supported by fake spoof websites which trick victims into thinking they are at the real website. These fake websites are used to collect personal information to be used for financial gain and identity theft.

The top 10 targeted websites are;

1. PayPal
2. AOL
3. eBay
4. Bank of America
5. HSBC
6. HSBC Bank
7. HSBC Bank Plc
8. Abbey
9. Halifax
10. Halifax Bank

Emails that ask you to confirm, update or verify your account data are phishing scams and you should delete the emails immediately.

The sites listed above will never send their users emails requesting personal details.

How to Report a Phishing Scam

US-CERT is collecting phishing email messages and web site locations so that we can help people avoid becoming victims of phishing scams.

The APWG collects, analyzes, and exchanges lists of verified credential collection sites, like those used in phishing. This page allows *you* to notify us of a phishing credential collector site.

If you believe you’ve encountered a page designed to look like another page in an attempt to steal users’ personal information, you can report the page to the Google Safe Browsing team.