More than a dozen large companies from the financial, telecommunications and technology sectors have formed a group to fight "phishing," in which thieves steal sensitive information by posing as banks and credit card providers in e-mails.
The group, called the Trusted Electronic Communications Forum, will try to create standards for technology to fight phishing, identify theft and spoofing and work with governments to prosecute scammers.
Companies in the group include AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Charles Schwab Corp., DirecTV Group Inc. and IBM Corp.
Phishing is a growing Internet security issue, with 57 million U.S. Internet users having received email linked to phishing scams and 76 percent of the known or suspected attacks have occurred since October 2003, TECF said, citing the Gartner Group.