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What's the Jail Time for Identity Theft Criminals?




If you are a victim, or you know someone who is a victim of identity theft, you've probably wondered two things about the jerk who committed this crime.

First, if the thief was caught.

Second, what will be their punishment.

Unfortunately most identity thieves don't get caught. It's a crime that doesn't lend itself to much evidence. For example, if someone gets ahold of your personal information and uses it to get a credit card in your name, they can go on a shopping spree and really never leave a trail of evidence.

However, if a thief does get caught they can serve some serious jail time depending on the severity of the crime. Last year police caught a jerk running a sophisticated phishing scam and he was sentenced to 39 months in jail. John T. Brothers III 32, of Marshalton, Delaware admitted to sending "tens of thousands" of fake emails claiming to be from PayPal as a way of getting personal information. He then used this information to obtain $42,000 worth of unauthorized purchases. His jail time is officially 3 years and 3 months. He also was ordered to pay $29,627 in restitution.

Up until 2004, jail time and penalties for identity theft were vague. If a criminal was convicted of identity theft the judge would order a sentence based on their perceived serverity of the crime. In the example above, the judge might have realized Mr. Brothers' crime was so severe that she decided 3 years and 3 months in jail fit the crime.

However, in 2004 President Bush signed the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act. You can take a look at the details of this law online, but Ill spare you some time and boredom by giving you some main points. The Identity Theft Enhancement Act basically sets some rules for identity theft jail time and punishment. The main point is that any person convicted of identity theft will get a minimum of two years in prison. Any person convicted of identity theft associated with aiding terrorism will get a minimum of five years.

Also, if an identity thief steals your information through the mail and is convicted of mail fraud, this jerk will get two separate punishments. One for mail fraud, and one for identity theft. If the jerk is ordered jail time for the mail fraud, the identity theft punishment of at least two years in prison will be in addition to the penalty for mail fraud. Previously, these two crimes might have been punished together. Now with the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, they are separate crimes, with separate penalties.

If you ask me or any victim of identity theft, I'm sure we would agree that this is a step in the right direction, but still not enough. The effects of identity theft on the victim go beyond financial repair. The victim will lose hours from their life while going through the process of identity restoration. In this case, I don't think the punishment fits the crime.

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