Iowa has joined the ranks of states which are specifically targetting spam and spyware, along with identity theft, with the passage of their new suite of computer crime bills. One bill prohibits the transmission of spam, another spyware, and a third makes it a crime to misappropriate the personal information of another computer user.
The anti-spam and spyware bills both carry the potential for felony convictions and fines of between $1,000 and $5,000. The anti-spam bill includes a section which specifically targets spam hawking prescription drugs.
The new identity theft bill not only criminalizes the act of identity theft by computer, but allows banks, credit unions and insurance companies to sue identity theft perpetrators on behalf of the victim, and also criminalizes the unpermitted use of a financial institution’s logo in order to secure a victim’s social security number or bank account information. In otherwords, using the logo as part of a phishing scam.
Said Iowa Representative Tom Sands, “Criminals posing as a legitimate financial institution will not be tolerated in Iowa.”
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