Microsoft has announced plans for legal action against more than
100 online fraudsters in Europe and surrounding regions. The
action, part of the software giant's Global Phishing Enforcement
Initiative (GPEI), is part of a wider scheme to fight online scams
through consumer protection, partnerships and prosecution.
By John Leyden for The
Register.
This article has been reproduced with permission.
The first 53 legal actions (due to be filed before the end of
March) include cases against alleged phishers in Turkey, France,
Spain, Morocco, the UK, Germany, Austria, Egypt and Sweden. This
will be followed by at least 51 more cases throughout Europe, the
Middle East and Africa, against other suspected fraudsters. There
is a planned total of seven UK cases.
The GPEI scheme was announced in a meeting hosted by EuroISPA,
the European Internet Services Providers Association, and
co-sponsored by Interpol in Brussels on Monday. Microsoft is
supplementing its legal push with technology development and
efforts to remove bogus websites from the net as soon as they
appear. For example, IE7 (the next version of the software giant's
web browser) will feature a phishing filter. Microsoft said it has
led the take down of 4,744 phishing sites worldwide, and in the US
last spring it filed 117 phishing lawsuits.
A Microsoft spokeswoman said the cases are the first time the
software giant has launched large scale legal action against
phishing fraudsters in Europe.
© The Register
2006
