2C:21-6.
Credit cards
a. Definitions. As used in this section:
(1) "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" means any tangible or intangible instrument
or device issued with or without fee by an issuer that can be used,
alone or in connection with another means of account access, in
obtaining money, goods, services or anything else of value on
credit, including credit cards, credit plates, account numbers, or
any other means of account access.
(3) "Expired credit card" means a credit card which is no
longer valid because the term shown either on it or on documentation
provided to the cardholder by the issuer has elapsed.
(4) "Issuer" means the business organization or financial
institution which issues a credit card or its duly authorized
agent.
(5) "Receives" or "receiving" means acquiring possession or
control or accepting a credit card as security for a loan.
(6) "Revoked credit card" means a credit card which is no
longer valid because permission to use it has been suspended or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.
b. False statements made in procuring issuance of credit
card. A person who makes or causes to be made, either directly or
indirectly, any false statement in writing, knowing it to be false
and with intent that it be relied on, respecting his identity or
that of any other person, firm or corporation, or his financial
condition or that of any other person, firm or corporation, for the
purpose of procuring the issuance of a credit card is guilty of a
crime of the fourth degree.
c. Credit card theft.
(1) A person who takes or obtains a credit card from the
person, possession, custody or control of another without the
cardholder's consent or who, with knowledge that it has been so
taken, receives the credit card with intent to use it or to sell it,
or to transfer it to a person other than the issuer or the
cardholder is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree. Taking a
credit card without consent includes obtaining it by any conduct
defined and prescribed in Chapter 20 of this title, Theft and
Related Offenses.
A person who has in his possession or under his control (a)
credit cards issued in the names of two or more other persons or,
(b) two or more stolen credit cards is presumed to have violated
this paragraph.
(2) A person who receives a credit card that he knows to have
been lost, mislaid, or delivered under a mistake as to the identity
or address of the cardholder, 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 is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.
(3) A person other than the issuer who sells a credit card or a
person who buys a credit card from a person other than the issuer is
guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.
(4) A person who, with intent to defraud the issuer, a person
or organization providing money, goods, services or anything else of
value, or any other person, obtains control over a credit card as
security for debt is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.
(5) A person who, with intent to defraud a purported issuer, a
person or organization providing money, goods, services or anything
else of value, or any other person, falsely makes or falsely
embosses a purported credit card or utters such a credit card is
guilty of a third degree offense. A person other than the purported
issuer who possesses two or more credit cards which are falsely made
or falsely embossed is presumed to have violated this paragraph. 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. A person "falsely
embosses" a credit card when, without the authorization 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 cardholder.
(6) A person other than the cardholder or a person authorized
by him who, 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, is guilty of a
crime of the fourth degree. A person who possesses two or more
credit cards which are so signed is presumed to have violated this
paragraph.
d. Intent of cardholder to defraud; penalties; knowledge of
revocation. A person, who, with intent to defraud the issuer, a
person or organization providing money, goods, services or anything
else of value, or any other person, (1) uses for the purpose of
obtaining money, goods, services or anything else of value a credit
card obtained or retained in violation of subsection c. of this
section or a credit card which he knows is forged, expired or
revoked, or (2) obtains money, goods, services or anything else of
value by representing 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, is
guilty of a crime of the third degree. Knowledge of revocation
shall be presumed to have been received by a cardholder four days
after it has been mailed to him at the address set forth on the
credit card or at his last known address by registered or certified
mail, return receipt requested, and, if the address is more than 500
miles from the place of mailing, by air mail. If the address is
located outside the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,
the Canal Zone and Canada, notice shall be presumed to have been
received 10 days after mailing by registered or certified mail.
e. Intent to defraud by person authorized to furnish money,
goods, or services; penalties.
(1) 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 employees of such
person, who, with intent to defraud the issuer or the cardholder,
furnishes money, goods, services or anything else of value upon
presentation of a credit card obtained or retained in violation of
subsection c. of this section or a credit card which he knows is
forged, expired or revoked violates this paragraph and is guilty of
a crime of the third degree.
(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, fails to furnish money, goods,
services or anything else of value which he represents in writing to
the issuer that he has furnished is guilty of a crime of the fourth
degree.
f. Incomplete credit cards; intent to complete without
consent. A person other than the cardholder possessing two or more
incomplete credit cards, with intent to complete them without the
consent of the issuer or a person possessing, with knowledge of its
character, machinery, plates or any other contrivance designed to
reproduce instruments purporting to be the credit cards of an issuer
who has not consented to the preparation of such credit cards, is
guilty of a crime of the third degree. 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 on it.
g. Receiving anything of value knowing or believing that it
was obtained in violation of subsection d. of N.J.S.2C:21-6. A
person who receives money, goods, services or anything else of value
obtained in violation of subsection d. of this section, knowing or
believing that it was so obtained is guilty of a crime of the fourth
degree. A person who obtains, at a discount price a ticket issued
by an airline, railroad, steamship or other transportation company
which was acquired in violation of subsection d. of this section
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 circumstances constituting
a violation of subsection d. of this section.
h. Fraudulent use of credit cards.
A person who knowingly uses any counterfeit, fictitious,
altered, forged, lost, stolen or fraudulently obtained credit card
to obtain money, goods or services, or anything else of value; or
who, with unlawful or fraudulent intent, furnishes, acquires, or
uses any actual or fictitious credit card, whether alone or together
with names of credit cardholders, or other information pertaining to
a credit card account in any form, is guilty of a crime of the third
degree.
L.1978, c.95;
amended 1979,c.178,s.36; 1984,c.119; 1991,c.122,s.1.
