REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Eleven of the world's biggest tech companies, including Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Microsoft (MSFT.O), will sign an agreement with the British government on Thursday to step up their efforts to tackle online fraud, the interior ministry said.
Under the "Online Fraud Charter," due to be signed at a meeting chaired by Interior Minister James Cleverly in London, the companies pledge to take further action to block and remove fraudulent content from their sites, the government said.
"Fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, with online scammers targeting the most vulnerable in society," British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.
"By joining forces with these tech giants we will continue to crack down on fraudsters, making sure they have nowhere to hide online."
The British government says fraud accounts for around 40% of all crime in England and Wales, with data from industry body UK Finance showing almost 80% of all authorised push payment fraud originates online.
Persons:
Dado Ruvic, James, ByteDance's, Rishi Sunak, Kylie MacLellan, Matthew Lewis
Organizations:
REUTERS, Google, Microsoft, Interior, eBay, Facebook, YouTube, Finance, Thomson
Locations:
London, England, Wales