It's hard to imagine that anyone would fall for these kinds of phishing expeditions, but if they send out hundreds of thousands and 100 fall, that could be a lot of money from accounts and lots of damage to that victim's credit.

It's hurt my business of surveys by mail and online. 2 years ago, I would get a 50% response to an online survey invitation; today it's about 25%. Mail survey responses used to average 20% return rate; now I'm lucky to get 10% back.

People are just more skeptical of answering questions about their banking relationship. (My questions are about the quality of service bank customers expect and receive from an institution where they already have an account relationship.)