(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;

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 16-14-40

  • Automated banking device: means any machine which when properly activated by a financial transaction card or personal identification code may be used for any of the purposes for which a financial transaction card may be used. See South Carolina Code 16-14-10
  • Cardholder: means the person or organization named on the face of a financial transaction card to whom or for whose benefit the financial transaction card is issued by an issuer. See South Carolina Code 16-14-10
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. Source: OCC
  • issuer: means the business organization or financial institution or its duly authorized agent which issues a financial transaction card. See South Carolina Code 16-14-10

(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.