A coalition of internet and finance firms along with law enforcement agencies was launched on Wednesday in a bid to halt the growing number of online scams that lure consumers to fake websites to obtain personal and financial data.
The group called Digital PhishNet is a collaborative operation of technology, banking, financial services and online auction firms with law enforcement to tackle ”phishing,” a scheme based on use of faked or ”spoofed” websites.
”Phishing,” one of the fastest growing types of fraud, uses e-mails appearing to come from a legitimate company and directs recipients to fake websites where they are asked for personal or financial information.
The perpetrators often use the scam to steal money, credit card numbers, passwords or identity information.
Founders of Digital PhishNet include technology firms America Online, Digital River, EarthLink, Lycos, Microsoft, Network Solutions, VeriSign, along with the FBI, the Secret Service, the US Federal Trade Commission, and the US Postal Inspection Service.
”The key to stopping phishers and bringing them to justice is to identify and target them quickly,” said Dan Larkin, unit chief at the FBI’s internet crime complaint centre.
”Phishers create and dismantle these phony sites very, very fast, stockpiling credit card numbers, passcodes and other personal financial information over the course of just a couple of days, in order to avoid detection. Digital PhishNet is a powerful response to this type of online fraud because it facilitates critical data
collection between a large number of the targets of these crimes… and establishes a pipeline directly to law enforcement, in real time, before the phisher has had time to disappear back into the anonymity of cyberspace.”
Larkin said a number of law enforcement agencies in Europe and Asia cooperate with US authorities in these matters, but that there was no formal affiliation with the new alliance.
Digital PhishNet includes nine of the top 10 US banks and financial services providers, four of the top five internet service providers and five digital commerce and technology companies, according to a statement.
”Phishers are the street muggers of the digital age, using computers instead of weapons to steal financial information and identities from innocent people,” said Tatiana Platt, senior Vice-President for integrity assurance for America Online. – Sapa-AFP