Identity Theft

[corvette6769]

Have you reported these Hijacked/Stolen Pay Pal accounts to the FBI?  Identity theft is a federal offense.  They could use all the information you have from the sites to the spam.

18086[/snapback]

Unfortunately, Identity Theft is NOT a federal crime. For that matter it is not even a crime by most State or Local laws either. This is part of the reason that Identity Theft is the fastest growing crime in North America, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC report states that 1 of every 8 Americans fell victim to Identity Theft in some form in the last 5 years (3.23 million in the last 12 months alone). And that statistic is likely rather low. Some victims don't know they're being taken while others are too embarrassed to do anything about it.

According to the FBI, anyone can fall victim to this crime because personal information is so readily available through new technology in recent years. Although this crime is committed in many forms such as credit card number fraud, social security number theft and other similar methods, the unsuspecting victims pay a high price to regain their identity and repair the damage. Identity theft can take up to 2 years to discover and 2 years to resolve. In fact, you could be a victim right now and not know. Victims spend literally 24 months and usually more than $2,200 just to restore their credit rating after the theft has occurred.

In Identity-theft cases, the victim often has to prove his or her innocence. This shocks most new identity-theft victims. They naturally expect the police, the credit grantors, the credit-reporting agencies and others in high places to help them. Maybe it should be that way…but usually it isn't.

[Wazoo]

In the U.S. , there are a number of items that deal with "identity theft" ... Here's a couple quick links and a bit of an excerpt from the last URL;

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/fedcase_idtheft.html

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idthef...0and%20Identity

The Department of Justice prosecutes cases of identity theft and fraud under a variety of federal statutes. In the fall of 1998, for example, Congress passed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act . This legislation created a new offense of identity theft, which prohibits

knowingly transfer[ring] or us[ing], without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law.

18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(7). This offense, in most circumstances, carries a maximum term of 15 years' imprisonment, a fine, and criminal forfeiture of any personal property used or intended to be used to commit the offense.

Schemes to commit identity theft or fraud may also involve violations of other statutes such as identification fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1028), credit card fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1029), computer fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1030), mail fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1341), wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343), or financial institution fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1344). Each of these federal offenses are felonies that carry substantial penalties ­ in some cases, as high as 30 years' imprisonment, fines, and criminal forfeiture.

[corvette6769]

Wazoo you are correct. And as stated on the Department of Justice’s web page you linked http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/fedcase_idtheft.html "identity theft is not a crime committed for its own sake"

Unfortunately Identity Theft by itself is only considered an aggravating factor in the violation of another Federal law, or one that constitutes a felony under another State or local law. In other words only if it is a mitigating aspect of the underlying violation of another law. Just like drinking alcohol is not illegal but driving drunk is.

Identity Theft can mean many different things depending on whom you talk to and/or what instrument was used to perpetrate the fraud, Identity theft could be referred to as any of the following: ID Theft, Identity Fraud, Bank Fraud, Account Takeover, Credit Card Fraud, Criminal Identity Theft, Check Fraud, New Account Fraud, or Wire Fraud. Although different institutions, companies or agencies may call it Identity Theft, in these cases it is actually fraud or theft.

Problem is that spam is at most a misdemeanor, so Identity Theft used to perpetuate the spam is not a federal crime violate any State or Local Felony laws. At most, Identity Theft may increase the penalty under the law when used to commit fraud or theft such as the use of a gun during the commission of a felony does.

To my knowledge, there has never been a standalone case of Identity Theft prosecuted by the Federal Government that did not include some form of fraud or theft.

[Merlyn]

But what haapens when you also break the computer crime act?

IANAL but obviously you are not either.

see:

http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=91393

[corvette6769]

But what haapens when you also break the computer crime act?

see:

http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=91393

18201[/snapback]

To answer your question, first of all you would have to be within US jurisdiction (and then nothing would happen unless you are convicted) and then the punishment imposed would depend on which part of the Computer Crime Act (and for that matter which Computer Crime Act as many states have their own) you actually violated.

Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act will do little to deter identity thieves since it only adds a 2 year sentence on to an already heavy felony sentence. Sort of like giving a bank robber a $50.00 speeding ticket in addition to 20 years in prison for robbing the bank he was speeding away from.

[Merlyn]

July 15, 2004

Identity Theft Law Hits Back at 'Phishers'

By Roy Mark

President Bush signed into law Thursday legislation creating stiffer criminal penalties for identity theft.

another snippet:

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced an additional measure that would penalize the practice of "phishing" by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3381781

another:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Jul15.html

[corvette6769]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Jul15.html is an excellent article that explains the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act.

While there are hundreds of new phishing scams launched each month, as little as 3 percent of all identity theft reports involved the Internet. In addition, victims who inadvertently divulge credit card, social security, and bank account information through such scams likely give that information to foreign individuals who are outside US jurisdiction. The new law may have an effect on sentencing of convicted identity thieves, but the best protection against identity theft lies with the individual who takes steps to protect himself.

[Wazoo]

Would you explain the link you offered?

10/04/04 13:18:41 Browsing http://209.123.207.112//idt

Fetching http://209.123.207.112//idt ...

GET //idt HTTP/1.1

Host: 209.123.207.112

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently

Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 18:18:43 GMT

Server: Apache

Location: http://www.prepaidlegal.com/idt/shreffler

<HTML><HEAD>

<TITLE>301 Moved Permanently</TITLE>

</HEAD><BODY>

<H1>Moved Permanently</H1>

The document has moved <A HREF="http://www.prepaidlegal.com/idt/shreffler">here</A>.<P>

</BODY></HTML>

Nothing personal, but hiding a link behind a redirect kind of goes against the grain in here.

Damn, and even that one is another redirect ...

<HTML><HEAD>

<TITLE>302 Found</TITLE>

</HEAD><BODY>

<H1>Found</H1>

The document has moved <A HREF="http://wserver0.prepaidlegal.com/Multisite/Multisite?site=idt&assoc=shreffler">here</A>.<P>

<HR>

<ADDRESS>Apache/1.3.26 Server at www.prepaidlegal.com Port 80</ADDRESS>

</BODY></HTML>

OK, take it personally .... I'm now debating the "is it a bit of spam" decision ....

Nothing like a bit of enforced tracking to really get me going;

10/04/04 13:29:50 Fetching http://wserver0.prepaidlegal.com/Multisite...assoc=shreffler

Fetching http://wserver0.prepaidlegal.com/Multisite...assoc=shreffler ...

GET /Multisite/Multisite?site=idt&assoc=shreffler HTTP/1.1

Host: wserver0.prepaidlegal.com

HTTP/1.1 500 ok

Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 18:28:58 GMT

Server: IBM_HTTP_Server/1.3.12.3 Apache/1.3.12 (Unix)

Set-Cookie: sesessionid=RV5A1MVL2HD21WXAESAWJHI;Path=/

Cache-Control: no-cache="set-cookie,set-cookie2"

Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT

<H1>A recursive error was detected.</H1>

<H3>The server cannot use specified error page. Please check the application error-path.</H3>

<BR><H3>Original Error: </H3>

<B>Error Message: </B>Server caught unhandled exception from servlet [Multisite]: null<BR>

<B>Error Code: </B>500<BR>

<B>Target Servlet: </B>Multisite<BR>

<B>Error Stack: </B><BR>

<HR width="100%">

<B>Root Error-1</B>: null<BR><XMP>

java.lang.NullPointerException

[dbiel]

Wazoo

This thread has spun off in a totally different direction

Original title "My Ip Blocked. Only 1 Spammer . He was removed"

Current topic: Itentity theft.

Could you split this off and move it to the lounge?

Thank you.

[corvette6769]

Sorry, I forgot that I removed the article when the website was upgraded. Absolutely no intent to hide anything. Often I use a short URL like http://www.SS427.com/ppl to save keystrokes (and typos). Just like http://www.FastSS.com is a short domain name I use simply as a shortcut to http://www.lightningspeedshop.com/4-high-p...ts-for-sale.htm I suppose they are redirects but used completely without malice. You will notice that when you go to http://www.FastSS.com or http://www.SS427.com/ppl that the URL is not cloaked.

[Wazoo]

The question was on the link found in the last line of the post that reads;

lies with the individual who takes steps to protect himself.