The number of online banking customers who visit phishing sites is very small, however half of those who do fall victim to phishing fraud attempts end up divulging their login credentials to these fraudulent websites, a recent survey indicates.

Thus, while only 1.04 percent of online banking users visit phishing sites on a yearly basis, around 0.47 percent of them reveal their login credentials via the false websites impersonating their bank. Based on the volume of these attacks, losses attributed to phishing could cost banks as much as USD 9.4 million annually per 1 million users if criminals abuse all of the stolen accounts.

The findings were made public by customer protection company for online businesses Trusteer and are based on a sample of more than 3 million users of Trusteer’s Rapport browser security service, who are customers of 10 large US and European banks.

Trusteer’s report has also revealed that each phishing attack compromises a very small number of customer accounts, but due to the large number of attacks, the aggregated number is significant. According to the data, 1.04 percent of bank customers click on malicious links and are redirected to a phishing website, while 0.47 percent of a bank’s customers divulge their login credentials and other personal information on phishing websites.

Rapport from Trusteer is a browser plug-in plus security service that prevents redirection of user information to fraudulent websites. It protects personally identifiable information (PII) and web pages from unauthorized access and theft while users are accessing sensitive websites.