Government folly—especially when committed with the best of intentions—has long been fodder for British comedy troupes and socio-political writers alike. They’ll probably have a field day with a proposed federal anti-phishing bill—one that simply parrots other laws that make phishing illegal and commands marketers engaged in best practices to do what they already do.

Last week a group of U.S. senators—led by Ted “An Internet Was Sent By My Staff” Stevens of Alaska—introduced the Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act, a nationwide law that will make it illegal to steal account information by pretending to be a bank, credit card company, or other financial institution.

It may be news to not-so-Web-savvy senators, but phishing is one of the more nefarious uses of spam email. Fear of it has long made consumers wary of unsolicited email messages. Marketing best practices developed long ago as a result with the aim of gaining consumer trust.

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