Fighting Fraud: The call goes global

NEWS Following the calls from silicon.com for an independent response to the fraud undermining public confidence in ecommerce, the US Federal Trade Commission has launched an internet site to allow consumers to report grievances and online rip-offs. The site, called econsumer.gov, will link to organisations around the world with the aim of sharing information placed on it between consumer bodies and governments. The initiative from the FTC marks a significant shift in attempts to support consumer confidence in the web. silicon.com's Fighting Fraud campaign, which today attracted support from the Confederation of British Industry, adding to add the support of Institute of Directors and the International Chamber of Commerce, is aimed at creating a one stop shop for the reporting of all cyber fraud issues so a true picture of cybercrime can be developed. Following informal discussion with the Computing Services and Software Association, which along with the CBI intends to announce plans for a computer crime initiative intended to solve the problem of data and cash theft from computer systems, silicon.com has decided to widen its campaign to include all aspects of European cybercrime in line with the massive UK and global support to deal with the issue. A spokeswoman for the CSSA told silicon.com: "We welcome anything that highlights the importance of these issues." In line with the concern now being demonstrated by the industry silicon.com is now calling for contributions for a debate on what form a UK and European cybercrime reporting centre should take. If you would like to lend your support to silicon.com's Fighting Fraud campaign, send us a mail to editorial@silicon.com Additional reporting by Kate Hanaghan