MANILA, Philippines – Online identity theft that causes damages to a party is punishable by imprisonment of up to 12 years, the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) reminded the public following reports of a surge of duplicate or dummy Facebook accounts over the weekend. In an advisory Monday, PNP-AGC explained that identity theft even without causing any damage to the affected user would still merit jail time of six months and one day to six years, according to Republic Act No. ADVERTISEMENT“When the victim of computer-related identity theft suffered damage, the applicable penalty is prison mayor, which has a duration of six years and one day up to 12 years of imprisonment. PNP-ACG said that under Section 4(b) of R.A. 10175, computer-related identity theft occurs when as a person intentionally “acquires, uses, misuses, transfers, possesses, or deletes such identifying information” belonging to another person. However, bill supporter Senator Panfilo Lacson claimed that the fake account issue may only be part of a wider operation to scare people about the terror bill.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer June 08, 2020 09:22 UTC