Increasing the state penalty for phishing scams is a waste of time, money, and effort. The bill in the Utah State Senate would increase the penalty to a second-degree felony. This is the same charge as attempted murder. I think any reasonable person can understand that the two are not on the same plane of 'badness'. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but so far there haven't been any crimes in Utah for it to be applied to. Most phishing schemes originate outside of the United States, making identification of the perpetrators difficult; now try prosecuting them. A much more effective use of the time, money, and effort being used to push this bill through the legislature would be an education campaign. TV spots explaining to never respond to emails asking for personal information, to never follow links from an email for any reason, to call a company's customer service department to validate the need for your information. Any one of these steps will almost instantly stop any phishing scam from succeeding. We don't need harsher punishments that will never be applied to anyone. We need education for those being targeted and tricked.

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