Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! to fight email spam together!

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL and Facebook are setting aside their online rivalry to fight a common enemy: email spam and "phishing" attacks.

The web giants said on Monday they have teamed up with Bank of America, PayPal and others to combat spam and phishing, where emails seeking to obtain passwords or other information are sent to unsuspecting recipients.

Following 18 months of private collaboration, they announced the formation of a technical working group known as DMARC.org, drawn from the acronym for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance.

"Email phishing defrauds millions of people and companies every year, resulting in a loss of consumer confidence in email and the Internet as a whole," Brett McDowell, the chair of DMARC.org, said in a statement.

"Industry cooperation - combined with technology and consumer education - is crucial to fight phishing," said McDowell, the senior manager of customer security initiatives at PayPal.