Rhode Island law punishes fraud through impersonation and digital forgery

The law treats knowingly engaging in digital forgery as identity fraud punishable by a felony. A forged likeness is an electronic image of an identifiable person or a recording of that person's voice, changed to closely resemble the real thing and likely to deceive a reasonable person. A person must take part in creating or sharing the forged likeness as genuine to help commit fraud, and know or reasonably be expected to know it is forged. The likeness must be made and shared without the depicted person's consent and must not be protected by state or federal law. The section also excludes constitutionally protected activity, officers acting in their law enforcement duties, technology providers or developers, and other activity protected by state or federal law. The act took effect upon passage.

The law treats knowingly impersonating a person or entity to defraud or injure as identity fraud punishable by a felony. The provision covers impersonating a person, living or dead, or an entity. The person must act knowingly and intend to defraud or injure an individual, business, Rhode Island, one of its subdivisions, or a city or town. The act took effect upon passage.