Louisiana Credit Card Fraud Attorney

Louisiana Credit Card Fraud Laws

The state of Louisiana has specific statutes regarding credit card fraud, with numerous conditions and stipulations for what qualifies as this crime. If you or a loved one currently face allegations such as these, it’s imperative to seek counsel right away to protect your rights and ensure any investigations of your finances or online records are legal. 

Provider Goods and Services Fraud 

Under Louisiana Revised Statute 14:67.11, it’s illegal for your favorite shop owner or store clerk to use your credit card information to process purchases you haven’t approved, or fail to give you the goods or services you paid for. An example of this would involve a waitress who changes your $5 tip to $50 or an online company that you ordered products from that never sent them.

Additional circumstances that are illegal under this statute include:

• Businesses that use a credit card after the owner revoked its use
• A business knowingly using a forged or stolen card
• Requesting payment from a credit card company and/or cardholder for goods or services that were never ordered
• Demanding a copy of a transaction that the business or card owner was not an involved party of

Those found guilty of violating this statute face up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $50,000, including the possibility of hard labor. 

Fraudulent Acquisition 

When a person purposely or unintentionally hands out false information to have a credit card issued to them, whether under their own identity or that of another person, Louisiana law views this as fraudulent acquisition. 

Possible sentencing for this crime may include:

• Hard labor
• Up to ten years in prison
• Fines of up to $3,000

The court could hand down one or all of these penalties to those convicted of this type of credit card fraud. 

Louisiana’s Anti-Skimming Act

It’s illegal to skim credit card data from others. Specifically, that’s when individuals or organizations use an electronic device or purchase receipt to acquire the purchaser’s card information to either put it on a forged card or use it to make unauthorized purchases by other means. 

Louisiana’s Anti-Skimming Act states it’s unlawful for any individual or entity to:

• Use electronic devices to obtain the credit card information encoded on the magnetic stripe without permission from the cardholder to defraud them.
• Use software and/or electronic equipment to put skimmed card data onto another card to use it for fraudulent purchases.

Those found guilty of violating this act face varying degrees of punishments dictated by the circumstances surrounding the case. Initially, sentencing for this form of credit card fraud face imprisonment of up to five years and fines not exceeding $5,000, but could incur more severe penalties, such as:

• Those who use a scanning or re-encoder device could face up to 10 years in prison, hard labor, and/or fines of up to $10,000.
• Third or more offenders face the same amount of possible prison time and hard labor, but also have an increased fine range of up to $20,000.

Anyone guilty of skimming card data with the intent or actually defrauding another will also have to pay the victim restitution.

Credit Card Fraud Via Identity Theft

Identity theft is a common element of credit card fraud that involves purposely using, transferring, or even just the attempt to use the personal information of another to commit fraudulent purchases, receive services, or any other activity that is of value. This form of credit card fraud comes with varying degrees of punishment, which are dependent upon the amount of theft committed by the accused.

Identity theft-related credit card frauds of:

• $300 or less will incur jail time of up to six months and fines of up to $500.
• More than $300 to under $500 has prison time of up to three years, fines of up to $3,000, and/or hard labor.
• $500 to $1,000 brings prison sentences of up to five years, no more than $5,000 in fines, and/or hard labor.
• Anything above $1,000 incurs jail time of up to ten years in prison, possible fines of up to $10,000, and/or hard labor.