IAGO'S NET: NOTES FOR AN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REGIME TO COMBAT IDENTITY-RELATED CRIME

摘要

Vast numbers of people and businesses around the world are discovering that they have become victims of identity-related crime, with costs in the tens of billions of dollars. This Article analyzes, and offers a coherent response to, the increasingly global problem of identity-related crime. Section II of the Article explores the nature and extent of the problem, focusing on factors that have made identity-related crime more feasible and profitable than ever before. It next discusses identity-related crime as a cycle of criminal activity that falls into five distinct phases: (1) the initial acquisition of personal identifying information (PII), whether in the form of physical items or data; (2) the initial transfer of those items or data; (3) the manipulation of those items or data when necessary to make them useful to others, whether the manipulation takes the form of alteration, compilation, or counterfeiting; (4) the transfer of the manipulated items or data; and (5) the use of the items or data for some criminal purpose, including fraud and concealment of criminal identity. It also identifies the principal financial and non-financial harms that identity-related crime causes, and discusses significant characteristics of the victims and criminals involved in identity-related crime. Section III of the Article proposes an approach to developing an international legal regime to combat identity-related crime. It first identifies and analyzes legal norms pertinent to identity-related crime that are reflected in existing international conventions such as the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention and the United Nations Conventions Against Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption, national criminal and civil codes, and other sources of authority. It then explains how these pertinent legal norms can be reified through those international conventions, national statutes, and other measures.