The number of trojans or password-stealing crimeware increased by 186 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009, according to the quarterly Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) Phishing Activity Trends Report.

Tom Ilube, the chief executive officer of Garlik, explained that despite the statistics, a lot of people are hardened to scammers online, as many bombard people with information which washes over them before too long.

He noted that people absorb a lot of what is in the media about identity fraud and other such situations, meaning they will often get rid of anything which could lead to hacking or theft.

However, Mr Ilube explained that in the meantime, fraudsters have been getting "smarter and smarter", meaning that phishing emails pose a greater threat to the livelihood of businesses.

He concluded: "The fraudsters are combining more advanced technology with a bit more smarts on the social engineering side at the same time as consumers are becoming more complacent. The net effect of that is the fraudsters are having it pretty easy at the moment."

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent).