Tapatybės vagystės elektroninėje erdvėje kriminalizavimas: lyginamieji aspektai ; Criminalization of online identity theft: comparative aspects

Abstract

The authors present a more comprehensive analysis of two countries—the United States and Nigeria. The choice is based on the fact that the United States has a great experience of fighting cyber crimes and, as research has shown, is the only country where online identity theft is criminalized. While the situation in Nigeria is taken for an in-depth consideration because of its Criminal Code Act having a separate chapter in which personation is criminalized. Also, in this article, summarized information about other analyzed countries is presented, the differences of the existing criminal legislation are described and the variety of sanctions for online identity theft phases is discussed. However, the research has shown that the penalties imposed for online identity thefts (or its separate phases) are mostly fines or imprisonment. In this article, it is emphasized that online identity theft is not criminalized (except the United States), and this impedes the detection, investigation and prosecution of such conduct at both domestic and international levels. Therefore, the authors are going to bring online identity criminalization up for discussion on the basis of the research presented in this article.