When you hear that about 10 million Americans are victimized by identity theft each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, you may wonder why the government isn’t doing anything to try and stop these crimes. However, the fact is that the government is trying. In fact, in the past few years, several bills have been made into law to help aid in prevention. The three biggest ones are as follows:
Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act In 1998, the federal government took a huge step in the war against identity theft: making this crime a federal one when it involved activity between more than one state. Before this, it was pretty much up to the states to figure out the prosecution and punishment for themselves. As a result of this law, some sentencing guidelines were put into play, and thieves faced penalties of up to 30 years in jail – plus the option of getting consecutive sentences if they had multiple convictions.
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act More commonly known as the CAN-SPAM ACT of 2003, this law was passed partially in an attempt to weed out individuals who send phishing attacks or other fraudulent emails. It made it a crime to send out unsolicited email without opt out instructions and some kind of label saying the email was unsolicited. The problem with this law is that it doesn’t spell out how exactly the labels have to read. Plus, the law can’t effectively govern spammers who send fraudulent mail from overseas, such as the good old Nigerian scammers.
Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act One of the biggest moves forward in the past decade was the passage of this law in 2004. It added more punishment rules than had been in effect before. More specifically, it introduced the crimes of aggravated identity theft and terrorism related identity theft. Aggravated identity theft refers to identity theft committed with malice and the attempt to commit another crime. Terrorism related identity theft, of course, refers to identity theft that is committed as part of a plan to partake in a terrorist act.
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- Newark Man Sentenced to 16 1/2 Years for Identity Theft
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