New figures show that phishing has helped increase the level of Internet banking fraud by 44% since 2005.

The figures, from UK payments association APACS, show that losses from online banking fraud in the UK increased from £23.2m in 2005 to £33.5m in 2006, a rise of 44% year-on-year.

The increase has been driven by a rise in the number of phishing incidents, which went up from 1,713 in 2005 to 14,156 last year.

Phishing involves fraudsters setting up web sites that are fake versions of genuine bank sites, and then sending out thousands of spam e-mails trying to convince recipients to click on links that take them to the fake sites.

When the user visits one of these sites, they are tricked into typing in their online banking details, which can then be captured by the phishers and used for banking fraud.

Users of online banking are advised never to respond to e-mails asking for banking information such as passwords. Instead of clicking on a link in an e-mail, which could be false, go directly to your bank's web site using the official web address.

Related Tip: Preventing Spam