Experts believe that there is an ‘industry-wide phishing scheme.’ Based on the ‘more than 30,000 account details’ that have been posted online, it looks like phishing may yet be the current Internet scourge, and we are well-advised to change our online passwords every three months as well as not use the same log-in details for multiple sites. Phishing scams use fake websites to attract users into disclosing their personal data such as bank account details or login names to hackers. All in all, it’s the swindling strategy and the mentality of gullibility on the part of the potential victim.

Google’s web-based email system, Gmail, has been made part of the target. Other web-based email systems are being victimized as well. Google’s response is to ‘immediately safeguard the affected accounts.’ Thus far, there are ‘two lists that detail more than 30,000 names and passwords from e-mail providers, including Yahoo and AOL, that were posted online.’ ‘The lists also include details of thousands of Microsoft Hotmail users. Google said fewer than 500 of its accounts had been affected by the scam.’

According to Google, “We recently became aware of an industry-wide phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for web-based mail accounts including Gmail accounts. As soon as we learned of the attack, we forced password resets on the affected accounts. We will continue to force password resets on additional accounts when we become aware of them.”

Google, though, admits that it has ‘discovered a third list’ but would not yet disclose how many accounts the latest list contains.

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Via BBC