Fighting Fraud: The manifesto

Overall aim:
To raise consumer and business confidence in ecommerce.

How will we do this?
By lobbying for the creation of a single, industry-funded body, to which instances of online fraud can be reported, where information can be shared and action taken.

Why is this needed?
There is currently no 'one-stop shop' where people can report instances of cybercrime, and no coherent body of information available to anyone concerned about these issues.

Neither the police, the various regulatory bodies nor existing industry organisations cover the whole gambit of online fraud - and all too often, they don't really care.

This means no one knows who to turn to when they fall victim to cybercriminals.

It also means no one has an accurate picture of the scale of the problem. This makes it very hard to do anything about.

The IT industry, and many users of the web, tend to be suspicious of government/police bodies. Greater trust will be gained by creating an independent, industry-funded body, keeping the information with those who truly understand it, and know best what to do about it.

Industry will be much better able to take a multi-faceted approach to the problem, from prevention through to punishment, rather than resorting to a one-dimensional 'send them to jail' approach.

Why now?
silicon.com's recent investigations have uncovered many perpetrators of online fraud. We'll be exposing them during the campaign.

The start of the campaign also coincides with the launch of the Cybercrime Unit on 18 April. We do not believe the Cybercrime Unit will help: it is likely to 'cherry pick' the juicy, high-profile crimes (consider the recent furore over online paedophilia). It is a step in the right direction, but its remit is highly unlikely to accurately reflect the reality of online crime.

Have you been the victim of cybercrime and had difficulties reporting it? Do you think the body we're proposing would be useful? Email any thoughts you have on the matter to editorial@silicon.com