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Posing as a different Facebook user can constitute identity theft, US court rules


Posting fake comments using another person's Facebook account can amount to identity theft, a US court has ruled.

A California Court of Appeal ruled that a school pupil had committed identity theft under Californian laws when he obtained a schoolmate's email password, used it to gain access to her Facebook account, and posted sexually suggestive messages whilst posing as the girl.

Wilfully obtaining personal identifying information and using it "for an unlawful purpose" without the person's consent is illegal under the provisions of California's Penal Code.

The student, referred to as Rolando S in the ruling, had received the girl's email password from an "unsolicited" text message, the Court ruling said. Because he had kept a record of the password and intended to use it later Rolando S had wilfully obtained personal identifying information belonging to the girl, the Court said.

"We conclude [Rolando S] wilfully obtained the victim’s password when he chose to remember the password from the text message, and later affirmatively used the password to gain access to the victim’s electronic accounts," the Court said in its ruling (13-page / 39KB PDF).

"[Rolando S] freely accepted the password information provided in the text message. While the text message itself was unsolicited, no evidence suggests [Rolando S] was forced to remember the password or otherwise keep a record of it so that he could use it later, as he admitted to doing," the Court said.

"On the record before us, we conclude that [Rolando S] wilfully obtained the password information from the text message, knowing that he was continuing to possess the password, intending to do so, and was a free agent when securing the password for his future use. Moreover, [Rolando S] used the email password he wilfully obtained from the text message to then willfully obtain the victim’s Facebook account password," it said.

Rolando S used the information he had wilfully obtained for an unlawful purpose because the messages he posted posing as the girl defamed her, the Court said.

"[Rolando S] wrote sexually explicit and vulgar comments on the victims’ friends’ walls, accessible by the victims’ friends and acquaintances, and purportedly as her. [Rolando S] clearly exposed the victim to hatred, contempt, ridicule and obloquy with his actions," the Court ruled.

Rolando S also committed an offence of sending illegal messages about the girl, the Court said.

Under California laws "every person who, with intent to annoy… makes contact by means of an electronic communication device with another and addresses to or about the other person any obscene language … is guilty of a misdemeanour".

"Any offense committed by use of an electronic communication device or medium, including the Internet, may be deemed to have been committed when and where the electronic communication or communications were originally sent or first viewed by the recipient," the laws state.

Rolando S had argued that he had only intended the messages as a "joke" and had asked the Court to overturn a previous ruling from a juvenile court. That court had ordered Rolando S to serve "90 days to a year" on a juvenile detention centre program, and it also put him on probation.

Technology law news is also available from Bootlaw, a free resource for technology start-ups, with regular events hosted by Pinsent Masons.

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