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Bill would let ID theft victims seek restitution
[Quote:]
A bipartisan bill that would let victims of identity theft seek restitution for money and time they spent repairing their credit history was introduced on Tuesday in the Senate.
The legislation would also give federal prosecutors more tools to combat identity theft and cybercrime, according to sponsors Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
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The bill would also eliminate a requirement that the loss resulting from damage to a victim’s computer must exceed $5,000 for prosecution; make it a felony to use spyware or keyloggers to damage 10 or more computers; and expand the definition of cybercrime to include extortion schemes that threaten to damage or access confidential information on a computer.
Unfortunately, this bill won’t change a thing. Victims can seek restitution from the criminals who don’t have any money anyway, and banks and credit card companies have no incentive to fix the vulnerabilities in their system that allows the fraud to occur in the first place. The only thing that will really solve identity theft is making credit card companies and credit agencies fully responsible for every penny of losses due to identity theft. This law is exactly backwards and should not be passed.
This bill sounds like the credit card companies and the senators met and decided they needed to do something that looks good but doesn’t cut into any profits.
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