NCJ Number
152838
Date Published
Unknown
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The U.S. Sentencing Commission organized the Computer Fraud Working Group to study computer fraud offenses and to determine if the nature of these offenses was sufficiently distinct from other fraud offenses to justify the development of a separate computer fraud sentencing guideline.
Abstract
The working group studied defendants sentenced under Federal sentencing guidelines whose criminal conduct involved computer fraud and abuse and found that computer fraud cases could be charged under approximately 40 different Federal statutes. The working group limited its study to cases in which the defendant was convicted of at least one count under Section 1030 of the U.S. Code. Of 76 cases selected, 50 were available for inspection to determine the incidence of significant sentencing factors identified by the U.S. Department of Justice in its proposed computer fraud amendment. In the 50 cases involving Section 1030, the working group found that conduct frequently involved general fraud offenses. In addition to fraud offenses, 12 defendants were convicted of improperly accessing financial information. Ten cases involved credit card fraud or altering credit histories to obtain bank loans improperly, while two cases involved theft or embezzlement of monies from financial institutions. Five defendants were convicted of accessing government computers. One defendant was convicted of altering government computer information to browse the system, and six defendants were convicted of trafficking in stolen telephone access passwords. More than 78 percent of the 50 cases involved losses to the victim of less than $70,000. The working group found that the penalty imposed was generally proportional to the offense and therefore concluded that the U.S. Sentencing Commission should not create a separate guideline to govern computer fraud and abuse offenses. 11 footnotes, 3 tables, and 2 figures