Phishing on the rise in U.S.

The number of phishing emails sent to American online banking customers in order to steal passwords and account details increased significantly last month, Computing reports.

A new survey reveals that 62% of all phishing scams were aimed at US banks and credit unions, while the number of identity fraud attacks against European and other financial institutions dropped.

Some 40% of non-US focused attacks were aimed at non-English speaking countries, with Spain, Germany and The Netherlands the biggest targets.

According to the survey, the majority of scams were still launched by criminals using internet service providers in the United States. Germany beat China to become the second worst country in terms of hosting phishing attacks.