Brits fail online phishing test

Date: April 11, 2005
Source: Vnunet.com
By: Iain Thomson

A week after the publication of an online phishing quiz to educate internet users about fraud, the first results show that over 90 per cent of us are at risk.

The Phishing IQ Test mixes actual phishing emails with letters from legitimate online providers. So far nearly 12,000 people have taken the test in the UK, and 92 per cent got at least one answer wrong.

"The 10 test emails are all real-life examples caught by our users, who then report them back to the company at the click of a button," said a spokesman from email security vendor MailFrontier which set up the site.

"This means that, had they appeared in people's email systems in real life, a significant number would not be able to tell a real email from a fraudulent one."

One week into the initiative 11,832 people have taken the test. Only seven per cent got all the answers correct, and the average user got just over seven out of 10 correct.

Over 300,000 people have tried the American version of the test and 96 per cent got at least one answer wrong.
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