Do You Mean To Say That Phishing Was Legal Prior To Friday?

from the just-curious dept

There's plenty of press coverage this weekend over the fact that California now has a law that makes phishing illegal. While many are wondering whether or not this will actually help at all (no, it won't), a much more important question is: was phishing actually legal in California before this? Chances are the answer is no, but this new law just is more specific about the particular crime, rather than lumping it in with other types of fraud. Of course, that should help give you the answer to the first question as well. If existing fraud laws were doing very little, it's unlikely that this new anti-phishing law will do much either. Still, this is the type of law that politicians love. It shows them coming out against something "bad," even if it was already illegal and the new law won't help to fix anything.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Luke, 2 Oct 2005 @ 10:12pm

    Will they..

    put anymore effort into catching these guys or gals so they will get caught? Or is just only saying that if they catch them there will be harsher penalities.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael Ward, 2 Oct 2005 @ 11:39pm

    illegal Phishing

    Does this mean I can go after someone on my own, and get a $500,000 judgment on them?

    Sure, may be hard to collect, but it's the principle of the thing. I'll go get my net.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ryan Elisei, 3 Oct 2005 @ 6:07am

    Not just politics

    I think the other side of the coin here is that now lawyers have a better tool to go after phishers with. They don't have to interpret obscure wording from antiquated laws. This helps the system heal itself more easily by reducing extra time and legal costs.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.