Security firm McAfee has revealed the 10 most common phishing scams for the month of August.

The scams aim to get unsuspecting surfers to part with financial details such as login and password information for online banking.

In one scam, cybercriminals used the start of the school year by sending out emails offering exclusive back-to-school savings from PayPal.

But the most common phishing scam was targeted at surfers who have Google AdWords accounts, reminding them to resubmit passwords or informing them that their account had been stopped.

August was also a busy month for spammers, as spam volumes rose by 160 per cent, according to security firm MessageLabs. Spammers have been targeting Google's hosted services like Picasa to spread spam, according to the company.

"Over the course of this year, spammers have been highly focused on using as many of Google's free, hosted services as possible to distribute spam," said Mark Sunner of MessageLabs.

www.messagelabs.com
www.mcafee.com

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