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 Oct. 16 in the Senate. Called the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2007, the bill would also expand the jurisdiction of federal computer fraud statutes to cover small businesses and corporations, and it would eliminate the requirement that the loss resulting from damage to a victim’s computer must exceed $5,000. Under this bill, violations resulting in less than $5,000 damage would be criminalized as misdemeanors. For a more complete list of provisions read the article here . While I believe this is a good idea, my fear is that the cost of fines and penalties paid out to victims will simply be passed along to the consumer. As with other pieces of legislation, we’ll just have to wait and see what the final bill looks like, and then see how it’s used before drawing any conclusions.
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