Thank the Phishers!

Hiawatha Bray comments in today's Boston Globe on how the surge in phishing attacks is the best news yet in the war against spam.

But how is this good news in the fight against spam? It's obvious, really. The old-style spammers only made life difficult for Internet users and service providers. The phishermen are messing with the real big boys -- the nation's banks and credit card companies. Phishing could cost them billions, and scare consumers away from Internet commerce altogether. ''The banks and the big e-commerce companies are desperate for a solution," said Dave Jevans, chairman of APWG. And desperation backed by money is a powerful thing.

Meanwhile, Tumbleweed and the Anti-Phishing Working Group this morning announced a new "Phishing Attack Trends Report" for April 2004 reporting that email fraud and attacks grew by 180% during April, averaging 38 new attacks each day.