Fighting Fraud: IoD boss backs silicon.com campaign

NEWS Professor Jim Norton, the Institute of Directors (IoD's) spokesman on ecommerce, is backing the campaign for an independent office capable of winning the trust of business and the consumer on the issue of fraud and abuse on the internet. "The IoD is delighted to support the concept of an independent organisation to monitor web fraud," said Norton. "We believe it is essential that a mechanism is put in place to build trust in the internet and we would see this as an important contribution." The support from the IoD follows the campaign's launch last week. An investigation launched at the same time found strong evidence of widespread crime across the internet. silicon.com found evidence of investment fraud, confidence tricksters, computer piracy and theft, much of which takes place without reverting to subterfuge methods. These findings were backed by web monitoring firm Envisional, the latest in a flood of companies vowing their support for the Fighting Fraud campaign. According to David Price, research consultant at Envisional, the company has uncovered astounding amounts of fraud from software, music and book piracy to website hacking and the trading of credit card numbers. Price said fraud often slips through the net because of the absence of an adequate reporting structure. He added: "When we find infringing or illegal sites relating to our companies, we know who to report them to. Unfortunately a large number of illegal and infringing sites we identify are not related to any companies or even individuals and in those cases the absence of a central reporting body is a big problem." To sign up for the silicon.com Fighting Fraud campaign, email your support to editorial@silicon.com To read the Fight Fraud manifesto, click on http://www.silicon.com/a43887