Believe me, I know how much pain medication can help when you’ve been injured.  Being able to obtain your prescription over the Internet through an online pharmacy can not only come in pretty darn handy, but undoubtedly makes valuable medications accessible to those who ordinarily are not able to physically go to a neighborhood pharmacy.  The problem, though, is that some of these online pharmacies are legitimate (and legal)… and some are not. 

On the illegal side, cyber-criminals use the Internet to set up phony online pharmacies and illegally distribute controlled substances.  Typically, these illegal pharmacies don’t sell a variety of prescription drugs, but rather almost exclusively sell controlled substances like hydrocodone – the generic drug for Vicodin.   The target consumer isn’t the little old lady in need of her blood pressure medication.  Rather – these companies are out for profit through illegally distributing addictive narcotics. 

Such illegal operations inevitably lead to tragedy.  Take the case of Ryan Haight.  Ryan Thomas Haight  purchased narcotics over the internet.  He had never seen the medical doctor on the Internet who prescribed him the drugs, nor had he visited the Internet pharmacy that mailed him the drugs.  A few months after ordering those drugs, Ryan Haight overdosed and died on February 12, 2001.  He was only 17 when he purchased them… and just barely 18 when he died.

According to the US Department of Justice website, a lot of people don’t realize that many of the drugs you can buy on the Internet are counterfeit and often are manufactured in other countries. Some of the prescription drugs are apparently even heroin-based so buyers become addicted to them and continue to purchase more.

After years of lobbying Congress for stricter laws, we now have the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, which goes into effect Monday, April 13. These regulations apply to the sale of controlled substances, not other medications, and are intended to prevent the illegal diversion of controlled substances.   The regulations are not intended to hamper legitimate online pharmacies, but to crack down on the illegal ones.   The statute adds several new provisions to the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) including:

• New definitions, such as “online pharmacy” and “deliver, distribute, or dispense by means of the Internet”;
• A requirement of at least one face-to-face patient medical evaluation prior to issuance of a controlled substance prescription;
• Registration requirements for online pharmacies;
• Internet pharmacy website disclosure information requirements; and
• Prescription reporting requirements for online pharmacies.

If you’ve suffered an injury after taking a drug you ordered online, or if you have more questions about this matter don’t hestitate to contact an attorney.  The doctor who prescribed those drugs to Ryan Haight was held liable in court to the family for his participation in the illegal online pharmacy.  Contact an attorney in your are to learn more about your legal rights and the laws that protect you.

For more information, you can read the DEA Press Release.

On January 1st, 2009, laws mandating stores sell only cigarettes that are slow-burning and comprised of fire-safe paper went into effect in Delaware, Iowa, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas. Fifteen other states have laws that will take effect this year or next, according to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes.

The paper on these cigarettes is thicker in two separate areas so they will extinguish (if not puffed) when they burn to these spots. This was designed to prevent fires caused by unattended cigarettes. It is estimated that about 800 Americans die each year in fires caused by careless smoking.

“There has been a rash of smoking materials deaths,” Oklahoma Fire Marshal Robert Doke said Monday. “A cigarette will fall into overstuffed furniture or mattresses when people fall asleep, or it rolls off an ashtray and on to the carpet, then the possibility for ignition happens. This cigarette is supposed to snuff out before it can cause enough heat to start a flame.”

States that have already implemented fire-safe cigarette laws are New York, Vermont, California, Oregon, New Hampshire, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Montana, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Utah, Alaska, Rhode Island and Minnesota, as well as the District of Columbia. Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, Louisiana, Hawaii and Wisconsin have laws that take effect this year. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina have laws that will take effect in 2010.

A New Year brings new laws across the United States. Some laws will have a small impact; others will be felt by thousands, if not millions of people. Some of these laws include the no-texting while driving law in California, no trans-fat in fast food restaurants law for Oregon, and a referendum that bans non-married, cohabitating couples from fostering or adopting a child in Arkansas. To find out more about the new laws in your state, simply visit your state’s home page (e.g. www.ca.gov for California, etc.)

On Friday, October 31, the State Department warned nearly 400 passport applicants of a security breach in its records system that may have left applications unsecured and personal information, such as Social Security numbers, may have been illegally accessed and used to open fraudulent credit card accounts, spokesman Sean McCormack said. So far 383 people have been notified, most of them in the Washington, D.C. area. More may be notified as the investigation continues.

The department notified the passport applicants of their potential vulnerability in August and earlier this month while working with Washington police investigating a credit card and identity theft ring. The ring was exposed after the March arrest of a man found with 19 credit cards in different names and eight completed passport applications. The names of four of those applicants matched those on four of the credit cards, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

McCormack declined to comment on how the man obtained the applications, but said at least one State Department worker had been reassigned and might face further disciplinary action pending completion of the investigation.

Following the passport compromising incidents, the department increased security for its passport records management, restricting the number of employees with access and implementing mandatory audits and monitoring of files.

Identity theft is a serious crime with equally serious consequences. If you’ve become a victim of identity theft, take these steps immediately.

• Place a Fraud Alert on your Credit Reports by contacting any of the three bureaus – Experian, TransUnion or Equifax
• Call your Bank and Creditors to close unauthorized accounts
• File a Police Report for the Identity Theft with local law enforcement
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission

For further information about identity theft and your litigation options if you have become a victim, contact an experienced criminal law attorney in your area to discuss the specifics of your case.

International computer spying and theft of personal information is on the rise, costing tens of millions of dollars and threatening U.S. security, the FBI’s cyber division reports.

FBI Assistant Director Shawn Henry claims that as many as two dozen countries have taken an “aggressive interest” in penetrating the networks of U.S. companies and government agencies. U.S. intelligence agencies have voiced recent concern over China and Russia’s abilities to electronically spy on the United States and disrupt homeland computer networks.

“U.S. federal agents are stepping up efforts to fight computer crime, and working with foreign counterparts where the rising wave of computer attacks has awakened international interest,” Henry said. “Over the past year the malicious activity has become much more prevalent, and the threat continues to increase.”

Henry confirms computer crime has invaded Wall Street, but that it has nothing to do with the current financial system crises. Individual investment companies, however, have lost millions of dollars through “pump and dump” schemes, in which criminals infiltrate multiple client accounts, run up the price of low-liquidity stocks and then dump them from their own accounts. Sneaky, sneaky.

Internet Crime Complaint Center, which the FBI helps run, has recorded more than 1 million complaints since its founding in 2000 and numbers are now running about 18,000 to 20,000 per month, Henry said.

Internet crime is defined as any illegal activity involving one or more components of the Internet such as websites, chat rooms and/or email. Internet crime involves the use of the Internet to communicate false or fraudulent representations to consumers. These crimes may include, but are not limited to, advance-fee schemes, non-delivery of goods or services, computer hacking, phishing, pharming, programming worms, viruses or employment/business opportunity schemes.

Internet crime is a very serious matter and should not be taken lightly. If you feel you have been victimized by Internet crime, contact an experienced criminal defense attorney in your area today, who can help to protect your legal rights and discuss the litigation options available to you.

Are you facing a legal issue?  Have you been sued, or are you wondering about foreclosure?  Did you just have a medical procedure that didn’t turn out as you expected?  Is bankruptcy looming?  What about your family life – are you and your spouse considering divorce?  Do you need to update your will?  Has someone you love been arrested for a DUI? 

These are examples of only some of the most common legal issues.  The fact is we actually deal with the law more than most people think.  More importantly, when we face a legal issue, many of us might not know where to turn for answers.  The legal system can certainly be overwhelming – especially because the consequences are often so grave. 

Since 1994, LawInfo has been providing the public with quality legal resources they can count on.  The idea for the company even came out of the founder’s own legal needs!  How do you find the right attorney?  How do you know the attorneys you contact are in good standing with the state bar association?  What if you want to learn about a legal issue before you talk to a lawyer?  Well, these are the reasons LawInfo was established!  LawInfo has a whole library of information about the most common legal issues including answers to frequently asked questions, articles, legal guides, legal forms, and other information – ALL FREE TO THE PUBLIC!  The really great thing is this – you can also easily find an attorney who will understand your legal needs.  It’s all designed to help the public – help someone find answers they need and find an attorney who can help them. 

Learn more about LawInfo’s Free Legal Resource Center and Find the Right Attorney in your area today!

It’s the newest, latest trend among school kids, and it’s not downloading songs on iPods or playing the current edition of Grand Theft Auto. It’s called “sexting”—sending graphic images and pornographic videos via text message to friends. It’s becoming such a problem that major metropolis cities, such as San Diego, have an entire team on their police department dedicated to sexting and internet crimes—often working on 60-70 cases at a time.

Although in this context sexting is generally done between school friends, it’s important to note that no matter the circumstance, it is illegal to possess, distribute or manufacture pornography involving anyone less than 18 years of age. Therefore, students who are minors themselves and are found distributing or possessing such images can be found guilty of child pornography…and can face up to 10 years in prison.

On October 3rd, police in Newark, Ohio, arrested a 15-year-old girl on juvenile child pornography charges for allegedly sending nude cell phone photos of herself to classmates. Authorities are also considering charges for students who received the photos.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a 17-year-old boy recently was charged with child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation for allegedly posting nude photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. The girl had taken the pictures with her cell phone at her mother’s home and e-mailed them to the boyfriend, authorities said.

Under federal law, child pornography is a criminal act, and is defined as a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, photograph, film, video, or computer-generated image or picture, where it depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is obscene. These illegal images can be produced and presented in various forms including print media, videotape, film, CD, the internet, and yes, cell phones.

Parents today face many challenges staying abreast of their child’s involvement in all things, legal and otherwise. However, something that appears as innocent as texting can in fact be a catalyst to a world of legal woes. If you have a teenager in your household who does have a cell phone and does engage in texting (this is probably redundant), it is recommended to talk with your teen and make sure that the images and photos that come to and from his or her cell are within legal boundaries. Being busted for child pornography, when a person is a minor themselves, is not something to be taken lightly. Even if the intentions were without intent to harm, being convicted of such a crime is not mere “child’s play”—and can cause irreparable damage to a budding future.

For more information on child pornography or other sex crimes, contact a Lead Counsel Criminal Law Attorney in your area today.

WiFi internet access—cable-free and loving it! WiFi capability is the best thing since cordless phones…and one of the easiest things to tap into. While it can be tempting to take advantage of an unsecured network to save money, there are clear disadvantages to using someone else’s wireless service—for both the service subscriber and the one riding piggy-back.

For WiFi service subscribers, the first disadvantage is that when others log on to their networks, it eats up bandwidth which makes for a slow internet connection. In addition, if the service subscriber has a bandwidth limit, the service may be cut off if usage is exceeded, or an additional sum may be tacked onto the bill. Also, people using the network could potentially access other computers on the network, if users have set their computers to share data, and this could compromise the security of all computers involved.

For someone who is “piggy-backing” on someone else’s WiFi service, the primary disadvantage is that the service could suddenly get cut off, as the service subscriber may decide to block their service to outside parties at any given time. Further, in some states, people can be prosecuted for theft of Internet service, and they may be required to pay fines, perform community service, or be penalized in some other way.

However, there are instances when using someone else’s wireless service isn’t always pushing legal boundaries. Sometimes neighbors may band together to share the service so that the bill can be split between them. In other cases, people who believe that Internet access should be available to all may leave their networks unsecured so that others within a reasonable distance can access them as well.

Although some WiFi enthusiasts welcome others to log on through their network by leaving their service unprotected, if you choose to log onto a service that is not yours and you have not received permission to do so, you do set yourself up for possible legal penalties. Click here for more information on WiFi pirating, or to learn about internet laws for your state, contact a Lead Counsel Consumer Protection Attorney in your area today.

Internet scams happen everyday, but one latest scam is targeting lawyers, specifically attorneys who handle debt collections.

This Internet scam starts with a solicitation, primarily through e-mail, from a seemingly legitimate foreign company looking for legal representation for their North American customer(s). Once an attorney agrees to take on such work, the foreign company lets the attorney know that the debtor in question has become aware that they have hired a U.S. collections attorney and has agreed to issue repayment. In a few days, the contracted attorney receives what appears to be a legitimate cashier’s check from a U.S. bank, and deposits the check into a trust account. When it appears the cashier’s check has cleared, the lawyer sends the debt amount (minus his processing fees) via wire transfer to the bank account supplied by the foreign company. Once this wire has been deposited, the scam is complete, and according to bank officials, nothing can be done to retrieve the money.

How this scam really works is that scammers know how to delay confirmation that the cashier’s check is fraudulent by changing the nine-digit MICR lines at the bottom of the check. And banks often make funds “available” to good customers; i.e. reputable law firms, before a check has cleared—even though technically, there is no money in the account yet. By the time it is discovered that the check is no good, the wire has usually been sent, and the lawyer is left empty-handed.

If you are an attorney who has been contacted by what looks like such a scam, report the incident immediately to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov. For more information, click here.

Anyone who has ever received an email knows all too well the evil and iniquity that is SPAM. SPAM is unsolicited, non-compensated commercial electronic mail sent in bulk that is usually fraudulent or deceptive in nature. On December 16, 2003, President Bush signed into law the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act), which establishes a framework of administrative, civil, and criminal tools to help consumers, businesses, and families combat unsolicited commercial email. This law requires all commercial email messages to be identified as such and include an “opt-out” for recipients, prohibits commercial email that contains fraudulent headers or sexually explicit material, prohibits commercial email sent to addresses via an automated directory mechanism, and subjects civil and criminal penalties upon senders (spammers) who violate these terms.

While large businesses have routinely sued “spamvertisers” in court, individuals have had little recourse for compensation, monetary or otherwise. The anti-SPAM law grants consumers the right to sue on criminal grounds if just one piece of unmarked, unsolicited pornographic material is received. This law acts in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) and other federal agencies to reduce or eliminate the viewing of sexually explicit material by minors. If spammers knowingly violate the requirements as set forth by the anti-SPAM law, they can be faced with fines or imprisonment.

Unlike telemarketing calls or third-class mail, which generally comes from legitimate businesses, SPAM is largely fraudulent and is not paid for by the sender. In fact, SPAM can actually cost the recipient. SPAM currently accounts for over half of all email traffic. This flooding of SPAM imposes significant costs on businesses and individuals who pay for disc space charges, connect time, long-distance net connections, etc. that have to accommodate the junk email. Thus, SPAM directly costs the consumer and their Internet Service Provider (ISP) to transmit, whether it is read or not. And, since telemarketing companies pay for phone charges and third-class mailers pay postage fees, these advertisers are more apt to spend their resources on potential clientele, whereas spammers can obtain email accounts through a mass-mailing directory, and send out free messages to an infinite number of people.

If you are being hit hard by SPAM, there are a number of things you can do. First, contact your ISP provider and alert them of the problem. They will likely tell you to forward the junk email(s) to them, wherein they can investigate the origin and proceed in having the spammer’s ISP account cancelled. If the spammer’s ISP refuses to take action, there are organizations that not only provide filtering software and blocking systems to download, but will also aid you in your fight to track and shut down the spammer. Since the internet is growing at such an explosive rate, and spammers are becoming more professional in their work (and moving faster than the laws set up to deter them), it is difficult to apprehend every spammer that invades your account. However, if the SPAM involves pornographic material or clearly demonstrates fraudulent practices, you and your family have rights under the anti-SPAM law, and are encouraged to proceed accordingly.

To find out more about filtering software or anti-SPAM organizations, visit www.junkbusters.com, or www.spambusters.com. To report a fraudulent SPAM, forward the email to uce@ftc.gov for the Federal Trade Commission to add to their database. For further legal information about SPAM, or to contact a LawInfo Lead Counsel criminal litigation attorney to discuss your SPAM case, click here.

It’s the newest, latest trend among school kids, and it’s not downloading songs on their iPods or playing the current edition of Grand Theft Auto. It’s called “sexting”—sending graphic images, pornographic videos and text to friends. It’s becoming such a problem that major metropolis cities, such as San Diego, have an entire team on their police department dedicated to sexting and internet crimes—often working on 60-70 cases at a time.

Although in this context sexting is generally done between school friends, it’s important to note that no matter the circumstance, it is illegal to possess, distribute or manufacture pornography involving anyone less than 18 years of age. Therefore, students who are minors themselves and are found distributing or possessing such images can be found guilty of child pornography…and can face up to 10 years in prison.

Under federal law, child pornography is a criminal act, and is defined as a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, photograph, film, video, or computer-generated image or picture, where it depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is obscene. These illegal images can be produced and presented in various forms including print media, videotape, film, CD, the internet, and yes, cell phones.

Parents today face many challenges staying abreast of their child’s involvement in all things, legal and otherwise. However, something that appears as innocent as texting can in fact be a catalyst to a world of legal woes. If you have a teenager in your household who does have a cell phone and does engage in texting (this is probably an oxymoron), it is recommended to talk with your teen and make sure that the images and photos that come to and from his or her cell are within legal boundaries. Being busted for child pornography, when a person is a minor themselves, is not something to be taken lightly. Even if the intentions were without intent to harm, being convicted of such a crime is not mere “child’s play”—and can cause irreparable damage to a budding future.

For more information on child pornography or other sex crimes, contact a Lead Counsel Criminal Law Attorney in your area today.