By John Leyden for The Register. This
story was reproduced with permission.
Senators on both sides of the House have
backed a bill that would allow American victims of identity theft
to seek restitution for the money and time they waste repairing
their credit histories.
Last year, an estimated 8.4 million
Americans were victims of identity theft, reckoned to be one of the
fastest growing types of crime. Sorting out the resulting mess
after fraudsters have obtained loans or credit cards in the names
of victims can take months, even years, to resolve.
The proposed Identity Theft Enforcement
and Restitution Act - sponsored by Democrat Patrick Leahy of
Vermont and Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania - would enable
federal prosecutors to seek restitution for the time and money that
victims spend restoring their credit histories.
Other measures in the proposed bill would
tighten up existing US cybercrime laws. The proposed legislation
would make it a felony to install spyware on ten or more computers.
Scams involving threats to access confidential data on a
prospective mark's PC would also become illegal, and a requirement
that damages in excess of $5,000 must occur before felony
prosecutions are initiated will be lifted.
More detail on the bill, tabled before the
Senate on Tuesday, can be found in a press release from Senator
Leahy
here.
© The Register 2007
