It makes me angry, but the law here in the US is that "ignorance is not a defense." Oh... you didn't know our several million laws when you broke one? Too bad, they say. Lawyers counter that if the law was simpler, they wouldn't have jobs.
You make it sound like if you hacked into Paypal from Germany you'd be completely immune to American law on the matter because you're not in the US.
That's simply not true.