Visa, Microsoft and online marketplace eBay on Monday announced a global service to combat identity theft on the internet with reported ?phishing? incidents currently growing at nearly 25 per cent a month.

The Phish Report Network was launched as more than 10,000 online security experts gathered in San Francisco for the RSA conference the industry's biggest annual event. Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman, is expected to detail his company's latest moves to combat security breaches in its software, in the opening keynote address today. Visa, Microsoft, eBay, its payment subsidiary PayPal and security firm WholeSecurity said the Phish Report Network was the internet's first global anti-phishing aggregation service.