South Carolina § 16-14-40 - Financial transaction card forgery.

§ 16-14-40. Financial transaction card forgery.

(a) A person is guilty of financial transaction card forgery when:

(1) With intent to defraud a purported issuer, a person or organization providing money, goods, services or anything else of value, or any other person, he falsely makes or falsely embosses a purported financial transaction card or utters such a financial transaction card;

(2) With intent to defraud a purported issuer, a person or organization providing money, goods, services or anything else of value, or any other person, he falsely encodes, duplicates or alters existing encoded information on a financial transaction card or utters such a financial transaction card;

(3) He, not being the cardholder or a person authorized by him with intent to defraud the issuer, or a person or organization providing money, goods, services or anything else of value, or any other person, signs a financial transaction card.

(b) A person falsely makes a financial transaction card when he makes or draws, in whole or in part, a device or instrument which purports to be the financial transaction card of a named issuer but which is not such a financial transaction card because the issuer did not authorize the making or drawing, or alters a financial transaction card which was validly issued.

(c) A person falsely embosses a financial transaction card when, without authorization of the named issuer, he completes a financial transaction card by adding any of the matter, other than the signature of the cardholder, which an issuer requires to appear on the financial transaction card before it can be used by a cardholder.

(d) A person falsely encodes a financial transaction card when, without authorization of the purported issuer, he records magnetically, electronically, electro-magnetically or by other means, information on a financial transaction card which will permit acceptance of that card by any automated banking device.

(e) A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than three thousand dollars nor more than five thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

HISTORY: 1980 Act No. 427, SECTION 1; 1993 Act No. 184, SECTIONS 95, 96; 1995 Act No. 7, Part I SECTION 10.