Phishers Face Jail Time Under New U.S. Bill

An anonymous reader writes "Democrat Patrick Leahy has introduced a new federal anti-phishing bill that would impose jail terms up to five years and fines up to $250,000 for criminals creating fake web site designed to con consumers in to giving them their personal information. 'Some phishers can be prosecuted under wire fraud or identity theft statutes, but often these prosecutions take place only after someone has been defrauded - that leaves plenty of time to cover their tracks. Traditional wire fraud and identity theft statutes are not sufficient to respond to phishing.' said Leahy in a statement regarding the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005."

Phishing after a night out

[LiquidCoooled]

I hope I don't get arrested for phishing in the wardrobe after a night out.

Totally agree

[Timo_UK]

The Phish stocks in all oceans around the world have reached dangerously low levels

Legislative Hall of Fame

[aconn]

This one will join CANSPAM in the Legislative Hall of Fame under the necessary but useless category.

NO!

[StevenHenderson]

Uh oh! Does this mean they are going to jail Prince Ombutu Nagala of Nigeria? He was going to split $28M with me!!!!!!!!1

A better solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Allow us to create online mobs.

some of us white hats and come grey hats are pissed at these scumbags, give us the ability to go after them with our skillz.

let me take down that server, swipe their domain name, dig in and find who they are and utterly destroy their credit, or better yet have fun listing them as convicted child pornographers and other things.

Let me use my 'Uber Skillz' and my phat beyotchin' and fly laptop to bring them to my own flava of justice.

WORD!

Re:I'm glad about this

[kaellinn18]

taking advantage of people is no way to live your life IMO

Then I recommend you not pursue a career in the federal government.

Attention Voters!

[Scratch-O-Matic]

Senator Leahy is engaged in a legislative battle against online scammers, and he needs your support. If you would like to help, click on this link [senate.gov]. To ensure that you are a registered voter, you will be asked to verify your name, address, and social security number. You may then make a donation online, right from your checking account!

I don't care

[Anonymous Coward]

just so long as they leave my free ipod scam alone...

A cause for celebration

[Laurentiu]

As a new federal law called "The Anti-Phishing Act of 2005" is being pushed by the U.S. legislative, hackers everywhere celebrate their victory over the English language.

"W3 pl4n 2 in7r0duc3 z00n 0d4r l337 w0rdz in d4 c0n73mp0r4n v0c4bul4rj", said the appointed speaker for the "H4x0rz" community, who prefers to remain anonymous ."0ur n3x7 74rg47z 4r3 "h4x0r", "l337" 4nd "pwn3d". 0ur l0bbj gr0up iz z7r0ng, 4nd w3 b3li3v3 d4j will 4lz0 b3 in7r0duc3d bj d4 3nd 0ph d4 j34r."

Re:NO!

[Penguin]

Since when has it been a showstopper for the US to enforce US law in other countries? :)

Let my people phish!

[Anonymous Coward]

I say, leave the phishers alone. Maybe if the stupid people who give up their personal information, account IDs and passwords at the slightest provocation get fleeced often enough, they'll stop using the internet entirely-- thus increasing the collective IQ of the remaining internet users by a few points.

AOL dropping Usenet and finally bringing September of 1993 to an end was just the first step in returning the internet to the clueful.

Let's get the naive idiots off the net and back in front of the Three Card Monte tables where they belong, thus freeing up more bandwidth for us to discuss who was the better captain, Picard or Kirk.

Re:The crime is creating a website?

[Anonymous Coward]

What you mean I didn't have to validate my citibank account ????
Who is citibank anyway ?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:The crime is creating a website?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait a minute...so was I wrong in helping that Nigerian king transferring his 3 billion dollars to my account?.....shite....

Re:A better solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hehe...sounds like someone watched that crappy-ass movie "Hackers" (even though Angelina Jolie was hot as ever in it)...

Hacker 1: I need to get in the system and list this guy as deceased.

Hacker 2: Well, just click here on 'hack' and you're in.

Re:I'm glad about this

[kaellinn18]

Some people realize that there are more important things than money in this world and that when you are 70

And some people realize a joke when they see one. Is the Navy still removing the sense of humor from new recruits? I thought they stopped doing that in the 80s.

OT: What do Phish fans say when they run outa pot?

[TheLittleJetson]

"Maaaaan, this music sucks!"