Reports of Email Fraud and Phishing Attacks Increase By 43% in March

Over 400 Unique Phishing Attacks Submitted to www.antiphishing.org

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 2004--Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:TMWD) and the Anti-Phishing Working Group today released the "Phishing Attack Trends Report" for March 2004, an analysis of phishing scam attacks submitted to www.antiphishing.org, the Internet's most comprehensive archive of email fraud and phishing attacks. This analysis identifies that email fraud and phishing attacks grew by more than 43% in March, with an average of 13 new, unique attacks sent out to millions of consumers each day. A copy of the report may be downloaded free of charge at www.antiphishing.org

Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' emails and fraudulent websites to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers, ISPs and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them. The result of these scams is that consumers suffer credit card fraud, identity theft, and financial loss.