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The usual target for the phishing scammers are the financial institutions, and banks, such as Lloyds TSB, HSBC, etc. Often you receive a mail from a bank, which asks you to click on a given link. On clicking this link you are taken to a website, which is a replica of the website of perhaps the bank you have your account with. In here you are asked to provide your personal information, such as your username, password, and even account number. If you should receive such an email, you should view it with utmost suspicion, since it is a declared system that banks and other similar financial instructions will never ask for your personal details.

In the usual scenario phishing scammers gather personal information only to be sold to the criminals who actually operate on the information. Take the example of an online bank account. After gathering the personal information of a person having a six figure balance in his bank account, the phisher earns around $400. Though it looks like a small figure, the work involved in this phishing and the risk that is taken, it is very easy money for a phisher who can provide such information.

The marketplaces in exchanging this information for money may be taking place in the unmonitored the chat rooms of the internet relay chat (IRC). The amount $400 may probably be exchanged in the form of virtual money by making equivalent amount available in e-gold.