Almost three weeks after the first convictions under his state's tough new anti-spam law, Virginia state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore says he is teaming up with credit card companies and eBay to help educate Netizens about online fraud.
Kilgore said in a formal statement that he plans to bring a bill to the 2005 state legislature aimed at protecting his state's Netizens against phishing – fraud plots using emails that fake official company or group correspondence in a bid to lure recipients into giving up their personal financial information.
His office is said to be distributing literature created by eBay that offers consumer tips on avoiding phishing and other Internet fraud, and issuing 100 ID Theft Passports to let victims verify to law enforcement and creditors alike that their identities were stolen.
Kilgore, eBay, and the credit companies, under an umbrella group known as Your Credit Card Companies, were mindful of the timing of their partnership announcement – the holiday shopping season is particularly ripe for online fraud attempts.
"The role of credit card companies in detecting and preventing fraud and identity theft becomes even more important during the holiday shopping season when credit cards are frequently used as a secure and convenient way to make purchases," Capital One executive vice president Marge Connelly, who is also a Your Credit Card Companies member, said at the announcement. "We understand that vigilance on our part is critical to ensure that consumers avoid becoming victims of credit crime. Individually and collectively, our companies work tirelessly to protect consumers from becoming victims."
Kilgore's remarks and the consumer education partnership came almost three weeks after a Leesburg state jury recommended nine years behind bars for Jeremy Jaynes, one of the first two known spammers convicted under a tough new state law. Jaynes is considered the world's eighth most prolific spammer by the Registry of Known Spam Operators.
Jaynes was convicted of flushing millions of spam messages through Virginia-based America Online, while his sister Jessica DeGroot was recommended for a far lighter penalty after her conviction of using her credit card to buy domain names for sending spam. Virginia authorities declared those activities made the siblings prosecutable under the tough new state law because of AOL's headquarters. Jaynes's attorney is challenging both the conviction and the tough sentence.
