UK begins international anti-fraud database

The United Kingdom and 12 other countries will start sharing confidential data about the complaints they receive from consumers in a bid to crack down on cross-border Internet fraud, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

The FTC voted unanimously to begin pooling its U.S. complaints with those from other countries to create a single database, something it said "will greatly improve international law enforcement agencies' ability to address cross-border Internet fraud and deception".

The countries participating in the project, in addition to the United Kingdom, are: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

Under the agreement, law enforcement agencies in each country will have access to the database through a single, password-protected Web site, the agency said.