I always take in the results of studies commissioned by security firms with a grain of salt, but even if McAfee’s recent one is off by a lot, it is still a doosie. According to the 2005 report, roughly half of all Canadians with computers have fallen victim to some sort of personal information breach, and many don’t even know it.

That’s half, or 50%, and that number is the downside estimate. It could be as much as 2/3rds.

James Lewis, the author of the study, suggests that having anti-virus, anti-spyware and personal firewall software installed on your computer can be a solid set of preventative measures. Sounds like the McAfee product suite to me, but nonetheless those are scary numbers.

Mortgage News Daily ran an informative story a few days back on the growing scam of mortgage phishing. The scammers send out emails offering low rate, low fee refinancing and debt consolidation loans, and use the standard “even if your credit is bad” language. This an especially dangerous situation, and likely is going to be an especially effective one as well. There are several reasons for this…

First, offers for low-rate, fee-free, and built for previously bankrupt borrowers, are a dime a dozen. I get five a day, and I bank with only one company for everything, and have been with them almost a decade. Second, there are so many lenders out there, from money center banks down to one-man loan brokerage shops, it is getting more difficult to determine who is who. Third, and likely the scariest piece, someone looking hard at a loan offer is going to expect having to give up a decent supply of their personal information. Last but not least, many of the people who fall for the gag are likely not in the financial position to bear the brunt of a drained checking account.

I suspect we are going to see a lot more of this. Don’t be surprised if this phish makes its way into the payday loan, rent-to-own, and other sub-prime scenarios.

You can read the entire story here: Mortgage Phishing, SPAM, and Email Scams.