Corporate America Takes Aim at Phishers

NEW YORK – Several large corporations announced plans this week to combat a form of identity theft known as "phishing," which frequently uses big-name companies as fronts for stealing personal identification information from consumers.

Typically, phishers send users bogus emails pretending to be legitimate businesses. The user is then duped into providing private information that is used for identity theft.

In an effort to retain the integrity of their company names, AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Charles Schwab Corp., DirecTV Group Inc. and IBM Corp., Fidelity Investments, Tenet Healthcare Corp., and several other companies from the financial, telecommunications and technology sectors, have formed the Trusted Electronic Communications Forum (TECF) with a goal of creating technology standards that will aid in fighting phishing scams.

The underlying goal of forming TECF, the trade group said in a statement, is to avoid diluting the legitimacy of corporate email and other forms of electronic commerce in the eye of the consumer. TECF will also assist the U.S. Government in pursuing phishers as well as prosecuting offenders.

In the month of April alone, eBay, PayPal, and Citigroup were used in major phishing scams that managed to steal millions of consumer dollars. In one particular scam, hackers sent out emails pretending to be from eBay, or its subsidiary PayPal, claiming that the user's account was about to be suspended unless they clicked on a provided link and updated their credit card information.

Recent statistics from Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Gartner state that of the $2.4 million consumers that fell prey to identity theft over this past year, more than half of those scams were done by phishers. Gartner states that 57 million Americans have received phishing emails in the past year.

"The epidemic as a whole has increased so much in size and success rates in the past several months," Shawn Eldridge, TECF's chairman and director, told the Wall Street Journal. "The problem is very large and no one is immune."

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

XBIZ 2026 Conference to Debut All-New Company Lounges, Community Track

The event website for XBIZ 2026 is now live, unveiling details for North America’s largest adult industry conference, including two all-new show features: Company Lounges and a Community Track.

Mymember.site Integrates VR Functionality

Mymember.site has added virtual reality playback capability to its website management platform.

Texas Patti to Launch Fetish Platform 'EmpireDom'

Performer and content creator Texas Patti is launching a new platform for doms and fetish creators, EmpireDom.com.

Ohio AG Threatens Action Against 'Major' Adult Sites Over AV Law

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today that his office is sending "notice of violation" letters to 19 adult websites for failure to comply with the state's recently enacted age verification law.

Chaturbate Announces 2025 Music Contest Winners

Chaturbate has revealed the winners of its 2025 music competition.

2026 XBIZ Exec Awards Pre-Noms Open With Debut of New 'Impact' Honors

XBIZ is pleased to announce that the pre-nomination period for the 2026 XBIZ Exec Awards, the adult industry’s premier career honor, begins today and runs through Oct. 14.

MYM Rolls Out New Traffic Features for German Creators

German platform MYM has launched a new traffic system for its creators.

Ukrainian Content Creators on Hook for Nearly $10M in Back Taxes

Content creators in Ukraine owe the equivalent of $9.3 million in back taxes, according to the country's State Tax Service.

Eroutique Relaunches Site Through YourPaysitePartner

Eroutique has relaunched its official website through YourPaysitePartner (YPP).

Update: Pornhub Will Not Block Ohio, Despite AV Law

Pornhub parent company Aylo will not block access to its websites in Ohio, despite new state age verification rules that came into effect Sept. 30.

Show More