why isn't spoofing email/internet addresses punishable by law ?

[rh71]

or is it already ? The phishing efforts are growing more and more. You try to use someone's home mailing address and it's mail fraud (is it not?). You have someone using someone else's name - it's identity theft or impersonation.

And it's not like the culprit isn't traceable... for phishing, there's an actual URL where it's going...

I've received a few emails from "customers@wamu.com" and it's quite disconcerting that nothing can be done about it. This is a huge bank... I could mail something out from @jpmorganchase.com and I'd get a whole bunch of old fogeys to give me their info...

 

Do you really want your local police or the FBI tracking these people down? I'd rather they devote their resources to something more...criminal.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: jumpr
Do you really want your local police or the FBI tracking these people down? I'd rather they devote their resources to something more...criminal.

You mean the same people who track down identity theft ?

 

[MrBond]

I don't think most people doing this use their own computers anyway. Many spammers are using trojans to hijack computers owned by law-abiding citizens. If the FBI tracks the source down, they find a 77 year old couple who got a computer from their kids for Christmas and who ran something a random person emailed them.

The ones that aren't highjacking computers are overseas and routing mail through open-relay mail servers, so even if the FBI could track them down, the local government says "Sorry, we don't care".

 

[rh71]

ahh something i didn't think about.. jurisdiction.