Softly softly scammers steal money on the sly

According to antivirus company Kaspersky there has been a resurgence in scammers stealing small amounts from multiple bank accounts, so the users do not realise it has gone missing.

"Over the last couple of weeks more people are reporting charges of $9.95 to their credit cards - for no reason whatsoever," said Roel Schouwenberg senior research engineer at the Russian company. "About a year ago we saw a similar trend and now it has been picked up again."

The revelation comes at a time when phishing emails designed to collect account data from unsuspecting users appear to be on the decline. At the start of the month SC reported there were half as many phishing emails spammed in July compared to June.

In July SC examined the state of ID theft with industry experts suggesting scammers are doing all they can to remain as anonymous as possible, leading to a new breed of virus writers that do not attempt to publicise their achievements.