Tech News

Tech companies declare war on email scams

Jan 31, 2012, 1:11 GMT

The alliance including Google, Faceboook, Yahoo, Bank of America and Paypal aims to create standards EPA/BORIS ROESSLER

San Francisco - Several major internet and finance firms announced a new alliance Monday to standardize email verification techniques to help banish spam and email scams.

The alliance including Google, Faceboook, Yahoo, Bank of America and Paypal aims to create standards that would make email impersonation far more difficult.

The initiative comes after millions of people have fallen victim to email scams and phishing schemes, in which emails that appear to be from trusted institutions trick recipients into providing key details about their identities and accounts.

Under current email architecture, email receivers lack a reliable way of authenticating their messages, making it hard for them to distinguish between legitimate messages sent by the domain owner and fraudulent phishing messages.

'Email phishing defrauds millions of people and companies every year, resulting in a loss of consumer confidence in email and the internet as a whole,' said Brett McDowell, Chair of DMARC.org and senior manager of customer security initiatives at PayPal. 'Industry cooperation - combined with technology and consumer education - is crucial to fight phishing.'