CHAPTER 480

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Chapter 8 of Title 18.1
am article numbered 4.1, containing §§ 18.1-119.4 through 18.1-119.18,
so as to define certain words and phrases in connection with the use
of credit cards; to define credit card theft; to create prima facie evt-

ence of such theft; to define the crime of credit card forgery; to de-
fine the crime of credit card fraud; to define the crime of crimmal
possession of credit card forgery devices; to provide for the crime of
criminal receipt of goods and service fraudulently obtained by this
use of a credit card; and to provide penalties for violations; and to
repeal all acts or parts of acts in conflict therewith; and to repeal
8 18.1-119.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to the same matters.

[H 1115]
Approved April 4, 1968

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding in Chapter 3 of
Title 18.1 an article numbered 4.1, containing §§ 18.1-119.4 through
18.1-119.13, as follows:
ARTICLE 4.1

§ 18.1-119.4. The following words and phrases as used in this arti-
cle, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall
have the following meanings:

(1) Cardholder. “Cardholder” means the person or organization
named on the face of a credit card to whom or for whose benefit the credit
card is issued by an issuer.

(2) Credit card. “Credit card” means any instrument or device,
whether known as a credit card, credit plate, or by any other name,
issued with or without fee by an issuer for the use of the cardholder in
obtaining money, goods, services or anything else of value on credit.

(3) Expired credit card. ‘Expired credit card’ means a credit card
which is no longer valid because the term shown on it has elapsed.

(4) Issuer. ‘Issuer’ means the business organization or financial
institution or its duly authorized agent which issues a credit card.

(5) Receives. “Receives” or “receiving” means acquiring possession
or control or accepting as security for a loan.

(6) Revoked credit card. “Revoked credit card” means a credit card
which is no longer valid because permission to use it has been suspended
or terminated by the issuer.
§ 18.1-119.5. (1) A person is guilty of credit card theft when:

(a) He takes, obtains or withholds a credit card from the person,
possession, custody or control of another without the cardholder's con-
sent or who, with knowledge that it has been so taken, obtained or with-
held, receives the credit card with intent to use it or to sell it, or to trans-
fer it toa person other than the issuer or the cardholder; or

(b) He receives a credit card that he knows to have been lost, mis-
laid, or delivered under a mistake as to the identity or address of the card-
holder, and who retains possession with intent to use it or to sell it or to
transfer it to a person other than the issuer or the cardholder; or

(c) He, not being the issuer, sells a credit card or buys a credit
card from a person other than the issuer; or

(d) He, not being the issuer, during any twelve-month period, re-
ceives credit cards issued in the names of two or more persons which he
has reason to know were taken or retained under circumstances which
constitute a violation of § 18.1-119.8 (1) and paragraph (c) of subdivi-
sion (1) of this section.

(2) Taking, obtaining or withholding a credit card without consent
is grand larceny.

§ 18.1-119.7. (1) A person is guilty of credit card forgery when:

(a) With intent to defraud a purported issuer, a person or organ-
ization providing money, goods, services or anything else of value, or any
other person, he falsely makes or falsely embosses a purported credit card
or utters such a credit card; or

(b) 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 credit card.

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

(3) A person falsely embosses a credit card when, without the author-
ization of the named issuer, he completes a credit card by adding any of
the matter, other than the signature of the cardholder, which an issuer
requires to appear on the credit card before it can be used by a card-
et Conviction of credit card forgery shall be punishable as provided

y § 18.1-96.

§ 18.1-119.8. (1) When a person, other than the cardholder or a
person authorized by him, possesses two or more credit cards which are
signed, such possession shall be prima facie evidence that said cards were
obtained in violation of § 18.1-119.7 (1) (b).

§ 18.1-119.9. (1) A person is guilty of credit card fraud when, with
intent to defraud the issuer, a person or organization providing money,
goods, services or anything else of value, or any other person, he

(a) Uses for the purpose of obtaining money, goods, services or any-
thing else of value a credit card obtained or retained in violation of
§ 18.1-119.5 or a credit card which he knows is forged, expired or re-
voked; or

(b) Obtains money, goods, services or anything else of value by repre-
senting without the consent of the cardholder that he is the holder of a
specified card or by representing that he is the holder of a card and such
card has not in fact been issued; or

(c) Obtains control over a credit card as security for debt.

(2) A person who is authorized by an issuer to furnish money, goods,
services or anything else of value upon presentation of a credit card by
the cardholder, or any agent or employee of such person, is guilty of a
credit card fraud when, with intent to defraud the issuer or the card-
holder, he

(a) Furnishes money, goods, services or anything else of value upon
presentation of a credit card obtained or retained in violation of
§ 18.1-119.5, or a credit card which he knows is forged, expired or re-
voked; or

(b) Fails to furnish money, goods, services or anything else of value
which he represents in writing to the issuer that he has furnished.

Conviction of credit card fraud is punishable as provided in
§ 18.1-9 if the value of all money, goods, services and other things of
value furnished in violation of this section, or if the difference between
the value of all money, goods, services and anything else of value actually
furnished and the value represented to the issuer to have been furnished
in violation of this section, does not exceed one hundred dollars in any
six-month period; conviction of credit card fraud is punishable as pro-
vided in § 18.1-119.13 if such value exceeds one hundred dollars in any
six-month period.

§ 18.1-119.10. (1) A person is guilty of criminal possession of credit
card forgery devices when:

(a) He is a person other than the cardholder and possesses two or
more incomplete credit cards, with intent to complete them without the
consent of the issuer; or

(b) He possesses, with knowledge of its character, machinery, plates
or any other contrivance designed to reproduce instruments purporting to
be credit cards of an issuer who has not consented to the preparation of
such credit cards.

(2) A credit card is incomplete if part of the matter, other than
the signature of the cardholder, which an issuer requires to appear on the
credit card before it can be used by a cardholder, has not yet been stamped,
embossed, imprinted or written upon.

Conviction of criminal possession of credit card forgery devices is
punishable as provided in § 18.1-119.13.

§ 18.1-119.11. A person is guilty of criminally receiving goods and
services fraudulently obtained when he receives money, goods, services or
anything else of value obtained in violation of § 18.1-119.9 (1) with the
knowledge or belief that the same were obtained in violation of
§ 18.1-119.9 (1). Conviction of criminal receipt of goods and services
fraudulently obtained is punishable as provided in § 18.1-9 if the value
of all money, goods, services and anything else of value, obtained in
violation of this section, does not exceed one hundred dollars in any
six-month period; conviction of criminal receipt of goods and services
fraudulently obtained is punishable as provided in § 18.1-119.13 if such
value exceeds one hundred dollars in any six-month period.

§ 18.1-119.12. (1) A person who obtains at a discount price a ticket
issued by an airline, railroad, steamship or other transportation company
from other than an apparent agent of such company which was acquired
in violation of § 18.1-119.9 (1) without reasonable inquiry to ascertain
that the person from whom it was obtained had a legal right to possess it
shall be presumed to know that such ticket was acquired under circum-
stances constituting a violation of § 18.1-119.9 (1).

§ 18.1-119.13. Persons violating any provision of this article for
which no other specific punishment is provided for shall be guilty of a
felony, and punishable by confinement in the penitentiary for not more
than three years, or fined not more than three thousand dollars, either
or both, or by confinement in jail not to exceed twelve months, or a fine
not exceeding one thousand dollars, either or both, in the discretion of the
court or jury trying the case.
2. All acts or parts of acts in conflict or inconsistent with this act, are
hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict or inconsistency.
8. § 18.1-119.1 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.