Who is responsible for phishing attacks?
NH: Though juveniles are often behind phishing attacks, they are only part of the picture. To date, the results of our investigations on phishing sites targeting MSN show that phishers who are requesting and using e-mail passwords are largely but not always under 18. It appears that the motivation for many young phishers begins as a sort of game. We want to deliver a message to this group that this type of game is not a clever one and they will be dealt with. We want to make sure that this group also understands the consequences to their illegal actions. There is also, however, another type of phisher who is more serious in their intent to do damage. A perfect example of that is the arrest of a gang of eight people in last January by the Bulgarian authorities, i.e. the National Services to Combat Organized Crime (NSCOC). This gang was attacking Microsoft customers, seeking to collect their billing information. It has been established that they have collected (US) $50,000, mainly from A
