50% of phishing victims respond to the scam within an hour, 90% within 10 hours

Phishing is thriving on the ignorance of the Internet users as half of the victims respond to the fraudulent emails within an hour of the receipt of scam messages, according to a study by transaction security firm Trusteer. Going further, the statistics shows that within 5 hours 80% of victims have responded with the figure raising up to 90% within the first 10 hours of an attack.

The statistics stresses the urgency for the fight against fraudulent websites that attempt to hoodwink the unwary into handing over online banking credentials or similar sensitive information.

Banks and information security suppliers need to work together to identify, block and take down scam websites as quickly as possible or else the damage may already be done.

"The fact that so many internet users visit a phishing website within such a short period of time means that blocking a phishing website – which is sometimes a cracked legitimate site – within the [first] golden hour has become absolutely critical," Trusteer chief technology officer Amit Klein said. "Blocking a phishing site after five to 10 hours is almost irrelevant."