India is ranked fourth after the US, Germany and the UK and Germany in incurring losses due to phishing attacks in Q3 2013, according to RSA, the security division of EMC.

The study revealed that that India received 3% of the total attack volume. Other countries targeted by phishing attacks were US (53%), Germany (17%), UK (8%) and South Africa (3%).

Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

In top countries by attacked brands’ India ranked third with 7% of the total phishing volume worldwide. The US with 27% and UK with 12% topped the chart.

Brands in the U.S., UK, India and Australia were targeted by almost 50% of phishing attacks in Q3 2013.

U.S. Inc. incurred a loss of over $882 million followed by Germany with $294 million, UK with $133 million and South Africa with 43 Million $. . Total amount of losses incurred in third Quarter of 2013 are $1.66 billion.

As per the report, RSA identified 46,119 phishing attacks in September globally with a rise in 36% increase as compared to the month of August (33, 861). Phishing attacks in the month of September also mark the highest number of attacks in this quarter while July 2013 saw 45,232 numbers of attacks. Top countries to host these phishing attacks include US (42%), Canada (9%), Germany (5%) and UK (4%).
 
As per the RSA AFCC report, number of phishing attacks recorded monthly is known to vary, and there is limited capability to forecast a trend that is so dependent on fraudster resources.  Although total is often tricky to predict, some seasonal trends do repeat every year such as the holiday shopping season when a rise in phishing attacks is expected.