USPS text scammers duped his wife, so he hacked their operation

Can you be prosecuted for hacking cybercriminals back? Because I am pretty certain that you, if you had something stolen from you, are not actually allowed to break and enter the thief's house, take your stuff back and leave, and you're definitely not allowed to make a copy of keys for their locks while you're at it.

It's pretty grey, there's the computer abuse act or w/e. But it's quite selectively enforced.

I don't the US gov is gonna go after him for hacking a scam group AND he provided details to the authorities. Now, if he hacked them and used the stolen credit card details? Who knows.

> hacking a scam group AND he provided details to the authorities

So cyber-vigilantism is technically illegal but the authorities will tacitly pretend it is not, when it suits them fine, probably.

Are you proposing that every law on the books should be enforced every time anyone breaks it?

Yes.

If you have a problem with that, maybe it shouldn't be on the books.

Sure, I'd be all for removing a huge chunk of laws that exist today. In the meantime I don't think anyone actually wants every law to be enforced every time it is broken. Our legal system would grind to a halt.