Phishing attacks worldwide havebeen bumping up against all-time highs, according to theAnti-Phishing Work Group.

The international coalition said its analysis from memberorganizations showed that 125,215 attacks were observed in thefirst quarter, the second-highest in the first three months of ayear behind the 164,032 recorded in 2012.

The fraudsters also go where the money is, the APWG said in thefirst-quarter report it just issued. Payment services accounted for46.51% of the targets, while other financial services firms werethe target in 20.1% of the attacks and the retail/service sectorwas targeted 11.48% of the time.

The APWG said targets in the United States continues to account for 40% to60% of phishing forays each month, primarily because a largepercentage of the world's websites and domain names are hosted inthe United States.

“The number and diversity of phishing targets continued toincrease,” added Greg Aaron, APWG senior research fellow andpresident of Illumintel Inc. in Willow Grove, Pa. “Almost anyenterprise that takes in personal data is a potential target.”

The APWG also found that 32.7% percent of personal computersaround the world were infected with malware or spyware.

The APWG collects data for its reports from several phishingfeeds and private and industry sources and said it continues as theInternet's most comprehensive archive of phishing and email fraudactivity.