STOCKHOLM - The number of fraudulent attempts to access online accounts in Sweden rose in 2006 but was small in comparison to the overall number of transactions, a Swedish financial watchdog said Monday.

In a new survey, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority estimated that almost 300 fraudulent attacks were carried out in 2006 compared to 10 in 2005.

However, ‘threats are increasing and the criminal activities are becoming more advanced,' the report said.

Some 8 million kronor (1.1 million dollars) was stolen as a result of the attacks. Some fraudulent transactions are known as ‘phishing' and involves clients sending their account details in response to a an email from fraudsters. In other cases customers have installed programmes that hijack their computer.

The four main Swedish banking groups log some 20 million internet transactions per month, and have during the period 1997 to 2006 seen a rise of customers from 180,000 to 5.9 million.

Attacks risk undermining confidence in the services offered by the banks, and if customers return to manual services it could ‘reduce efficiency' in the banking sector, the agency said.

Kennet Bergh of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority told Swedish radio news that while banks currently compensate ‘all clients regardless if they have been watchful or not,' that policy may change in future if numbers rise. The authority said that it would continue to monitor what security solutions banks put in place for their online customers, but would not recommend a specific security solution. Among tips to online banking clients, the authority recommended that users upgrade anti-virus software regularly, refrain from installing programmes from unknown sources, never open unknown email attachments, be careful when using computers other than their own and never disclose passwords to others.