Microsoft is helping law enforcers hunt down criminals who try to steal bank account details on the Internet and has initiated 129 lawsuits in Europe and the Middle East, the US software company said.
One court case in Turkey has already led to a 2.5-year prison sentence for a so-called "phisher" in Turkey, and another four cases against teenagers have been settled out of court, Microsoft said today, eight months after it announced the launch of a Global Phishing Enforcement Initiative in March.
"Sometimes we initiate our own legal action, but more importantly we work with law enforcement agencies," said Nancy Anderson, deputy general counsel at the software company.
Of the 129 lawsuits that have been initiated, 97 are criminal procedures in which Microsoft and other technology companies have provided information. The announcement was made at a European Union conference on identity theft in Brussels.
Phishing has mushroomed over the last few years, with the number of attempts to trick citizens into handing over their bank account details almost doubling in the first half of 2006 to 157,000, according to a recent report from security software vendor Symantec.
The total amount of damages from phishing is expected to be $2.8 billion in 2006 alone, research group Gartner estimates.
Phishers send emails, in which they pretend to be a financial institution or other legitimate organisation, asking people to verify personal information such as account numbers and passwords.
"Like most other cases of fraud, they prey on people's behaviour," Anderson said. They also scour social networking sites and personal Web sites looking for personal information.