U.S. Government Seizes Yahoo User Records

The United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) department issued a warrant last week for a particular user's information in connection with a series of money laundering scams. Imagine perusing your inbox to find an e-mail message from an African dignitary entitled, "Job Opportunity For You" and the subsequent excitement that is sure to follow. The offer seems too good to be true. All one has to do is open these packages, cash the checks, keep 10% for themselves and send the next set of documents along? It's brilliant, the domestic work opportunity that retirees and stay at home moms have been waiting for their entire lives! It's also money laundering, which is very much a felony. These types of scams are no strangers to inboxes across the Internet. It seems like every few months there's a new scam targeted toward the unsuspecting virtual community, usually involving an African country and the exchange of money. The ICE, which is the largest division of the Department of Homeland Security, is taking an aggressive posture in cracking down on these scams. Steve Bryant at Yahoo. Probable cause was clearly established, and the need for the data was clearly eminent. The ease of obtaining such data, however, leaves me wondering if the government will try to start tracking this type of user data without probable cause, and whether or not such a practice would be considered a violation of the fourth amendment. Another question for another day, I suppose. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Joe is a staff writer for latest ebusiness news