impersonating someone online/email

[Jon Done]

A general question, if say Fred impersonated someone via email (not for monetary gain) to find out more about another person would this construe as a criminal offence? What would be the penalties?

 

[Rod]

Not normally by itself. Depends on the impact to the other person.

 

[Scruff]

The most important factors here are what state the person is in; who was contacted; whether or not any information was released as a result of the contact; and what is done with that information.

In NSW for example, knowingly providing any false information to a government authority is nearly always an offence under s307B of the NSW Crimes Act (max penalty 2 years imprisonment and/or $22,000 fine). This will definately include impersonating another person for the purpose of deception.

If an offence is committed and any information is released by the agency as a result of that offence, then the actions of the offender also constitute corrupt conduct under ss7(1), 8(1)(a) and 9(1) of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption Act:

7 Corrupt conduct
(1) For the purposes of this Act, corrupt conduct is any conduct which falls within the description of corrupt conduct in either or both of subsections (1) and (2) of section 8, but which is not excluded by section 9.
...

8 General nature of corrupt conduct
(1) Corrupt conduct is:
(a) any conduct of any person (whether or not a public official) that adversely affects, or that could adversely affect, either directly or indirectly, the honest or impartial exercise of official functions by any public official, any group or body of public officials or any public authority, or
...

9 Limitation on nature of corrupt conduct
(1) Despite section 8, conduct does not amount to corrupt conduct unless it could constitute or involve:
(a) a criminal offence, or
(b) a disciplinary offence, or
(c) reasonable grounds for dismissing, dispensing with the services of or otherwise terminating the services of a public official, or
(d) in the case of conduct of a Minister of the Crown or a member of a House of Parliament—a substantial breach of an applicable code of conduct.
...

There are also many other areas of law where such conduct could result in an offence. Eg, breach of privacy laws, or even corporation laws if the action results in a company doing something that is against the interests of it's stakeholders.

Since there are three parties involved in this scenario (the impersonator, the victim of the impersonation, and the person/organisation who is contacted), there is literally a plethora of breaches and offences that could result depending on the circumstances and how extensive any resulting damage is.

So to answer the question, the impersonator could be looking at no consequences at one end of the scale, to full investigations, serious jail time and thousands in fines at the other end.

 

[Jon Done]

So to answer the question, the impersonator could be looking at no consequences at one end of the scale, to full investigations, serious jail time and thousands in fines at the other end.

Thanks, no to make it simple say it's a love triangle and someone impersonated another person to say he doesn't want to get married and he is moving overseas. Is that against the law?

 

[Scruff]

I doubt it, but in that situation, I dare say that breaking the law would be the least of their problems!