You know, I admire the idea behind laws like this, I really do. But we have to be serious here. Does anyone think that these actions will even put the smallest dent in phishing? If they want to stop it, arm victims to the teeth and then fly them over to the offender’s place business. I suspect that the message will be received quite clearly at that point!

The UK government is reforming fraud laws to create an offence covering the perpetrators of phishing attacks. The provision is among a raft of measures designed to clarify existing laws within the new Fraud Bill, which was introduced in the House of Laws on Wednesday.

A new offence of fraud, designed to strengthen the existing law and ease the prosecution process, is the main feature of the bill. The offence can be committed in one of three ways: false representation (as seen in phishing attacks); abuse of position (e.g. a person lifting money from the account of an elderly person under their care) and failing to disclose information (e.g. a lawyer who schemes to keep information from his client so he can make money on the side). [Read the rest]