According to IID, instances when cyber criminals used likenesses of e-commerce companies, excluding eBay (News - Alert), to steal critical data from unsuspecting victims, were up 317 percent from July to September 2010 compared to the same time period in 2009. Likewise, phishing attacks impersonating gaming companies were up 347 percent in 3Q 2010, compared to 3Q 2009.

 “Traditionally cyber criminals have capitalized on current events, resulting in an increase in e-commerce phishing attacks leading up to and during the holiday shopping season,” Rod Rasmussen, president and chief technology officer at IID said in a statement.

“As the world moves into the highly active online shopping season, we expect to see increases worldwide in e-commerce attacks. In addition, with the online gaming industry generating over $15 billion annually and growing rapidly, it is the kind of target that is hard for criminals to resist,” Rasmussen added.

IID also said in its statement that it anticipates this increase in phishing attacks targeting e-commerce sites and gaming companies to continue during the fourth quarter of 2010 based on historical trends. For example, from 3Q to 4Q 2009, threats targeting e-commerce sites excluding eBay increased 86 percent.

Other detailed findings of IID’s report include: Non-Avalanche-related phishing attacks increased 32 percent in Q3 2010 compared to the same quarter in 2009 and the number of phishing attacks targeting credit unions increased. However, the overall number of credit unions targeted dropped.