What Is Credit Card Fraud And What Are The Penalties?

It is exceedingly difficult for a Virginian to function in everyday life without credit of some sort. Whether that is credit cards from a bank, a store or some other entity, it is a borderline necessity. With that need will occasionally come a person or business making a mistake with trying to obtain and use credit. A byproduct of that could be an investigation and white collar crime charges for credit card theft. Understanding what constitutes this criminal act and its penalties is an important part of any case.

A person will be found guilty of credit card theft or theft of a credit card number in the following circumstances: a credit card or credit card number was acquired from another without the approval of the cardholder or if he or she has taken the credit card or credit card number and tried to sell or transfer it to another person; if the credit card or credit card number has been received and it is known to have been misplaced, lost or mistakenly delivered and the person keeps it to use, sell or transfer it to a person other than the cardholder.

It is also a legal violation if the person with the card is not the issuer but sells the credit card or credit card number or purchases a credit card or credit card number from someone other than the issuer of the card or if the person receives a credit card or credit card numbers issued in the names of two or more other people with the knowledge that they violated the law for authorized credit card holders.

With any white collar crime, there is the chance that the person did not realize how serious the allegations could be. Whether a person got caught up in an activity by mistake or was involved in a situation they should not have, having legal help with any accusations regarding credit card fraud is a must. Speaking to an attorney should be the first thing anyone who is arrested on these charges does.

Source: law.lis.virginia.gov, “18.2-192. Credit card theft.,” accessed on Nov. 8, 2016