The newly proposed California Senate Bill 1411, would levy civil and criminal penalties on anyone found guilty of “e-personation,” that is, impersonating someone else online with malicious intent. It would also include opening an e-mail account or creating an account or profile on a social networking web site in another person’s name.

The bill would make it a misdemeanor to “knowingly and without consent credibly impersonate… another actual person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means, as specified, for purposes of harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person,” decreeing fines up to $1,000 and a year in jail for violators. It would also allow the victim to bring a civil action against the impersonator under the terms of the statute”.

The law would have major implications for dating sites, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter where hundreds of thousands of fake profile have been created for various marketing and business reasons see Twitter A Farce Says Kanye West by the company and impersonators.

The California law is a start but it would be difficulty to enforce it against Internet users living in other states or outside the U.S. altogether.