Defining phishing scams

Posted By Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass || 30-Jul-2015

As we here at the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass have seen the proliferation of online technology, so too have we seen more and more Dallas residents accused of Internet crimes. One such crime is phishing, and if you’ve been accused of it, you may want to know all you can about it in order to be able to defend yourself. Phishing is a relatively new crime, and thus has few laws on both the federal and state books defining it. However, you could still face severe criminal penalties if convicted of offenses relating to it.

Phishing refers to the use of virtual media, email, text messages and other forms of communication soliciting viewers and/or recipients to disclose sensitive information. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, there were 123,741 phishing attacks launched in the first half of 2014.

Given that the intent of phishing is to obtain others’ personal information for potentially malicious use, it’s often grouped in with identity theft. Thus, if you are accused of orchestrating a phishing scam, the same rules and regulations regarding identity theft apply. This can mean that even if you obtain someone else’s information, yet never use it or the viewer or recipient never responds, you could still be charged with phishing. You could also be charged with it if you design or operate a website for another who is accused of phishing.

For you to be convicted of phishing, however, it must be proven that you were intentionally trying to defraud the viewer or recipient of your content. Maintaining detailed records of any online exchanges of information may help to prove that you were acting in good faith.

More information on dealing with accusations of Internet crimes can be found on our site.