Despite recent changes in cyber law and the enforcement of cyber law provided by the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, there seems to be an increase in Computer crimes. Recent news suggests that the Computer Crime and Intellectual Studies have reported approximately thirty indictments in Internet crime cases within this year alone. The most common forms of Internet crimes committed in these cases include cyber criminals violating cyber law by committing the act of computer fraud.
One of the most recent cases of Internet crime and cyber law involves a resident of California by the name of David Rigmaiden. David Rigmaiden (a self-described computer hacker) committed tax fraud that would have resulted in cheating the Government out of millions of dollars. One of David Rigmaiden’s tactics for Internet crime included using the computer as a means to gather names of the deceased and then using their names for tax information as a means to commit fraud.
David Rigmaiden was charged with multiple counts of Internet crimes including thirty-five counts of computer fraud, thirty-five counts of identity theft, a conspiracy charge, two counts of mail fraud, and one charge of attempting to access a computer without authorization.
Another recent news story concentrated on one of the most prevalent computer crime cases in America. This case is concerning Albert Gonzalez (also known as the TJX hacker) and his group of cyber criminals who managed to obtain approximately ninety million credit and debit card numbers in absolute violation of cyber law. The damage caused by the use of these numbers amounted to about $200 million in losses. He was sentenced to fifteen to twenty-five years in prison.
The Internet Crime and Complaint Center (ICCC) was formed by the FBI in conjunction with the National White Collar Crime Center. The ICCC tries to enforce cyber law by helping collect complaints of Internet crimes. They reported that between the years of 2008 and 2009, the number of fraud complaints increased by nearly twenty-two percent and there was a total of 336,655 complaints filed. The total financial loss between these years added up to be about $265 million. Contact an intellectual property lawyer to acquire legal advice and assistance.
