Building a Dumfries Credit Card Theft Defense
While credit card theft is becoming an increasingly common offense, that does not mean it is without consequences. The penalties for theft can be quite severe and as a result, individuals who find themselves accused of assault could facing consequences like jail time and a criminal record. If you have been charged with a credit card theft offense, consult a qualified credit card theft attorney that can begin building a Dumfries credit card theft defense for you.
Differences Between Credit Card Theft and Credit Card Fraud
Credit card theft is when a person takes or obtains a credit card from a person without their consent with the intent to use it or sell it. Credit card fraud starts from the point at which the person has already obtained that credit card or credit card information and is using it.
Credit card fraud picks up with the intent to use or sell. If someone uses credit card information with the purpose of obtaining money, goods, services, or anything of value from a card that does not belong to them, and that they know might have been revoked by the issuer.
Fraudulent Scenarios
Fraud starts off at the juncture in which a person has obtained that credit card information and now the person is using it a certain way. Another scenario is if a person takes that credit card and they are using it to get money out of an ATM machine that they know exceeds that amount. This is not a situation of credit card theft because that is the person’s credit card and they are the lawful cardholder. However, they are using their card in a way that defrauds the institution. Generally speaking, credit card theft gets at the evil of the taking with no authority, credit card fraud gets at the evil of using a credit card or credit card information in a way to defraud an individual or institution. When building a Dumfries credit card theft defense, an attorney
What Must a Prosecutor Prove in a Card Theft Case
Depending on the way the credit card/card information was stolen, the prosecutor may have different things to prove. The prosecutor would need to prove that the credit card or credit card number was taken from the possession or custody of another person, and that it was done without that person’s consent, and then they have to prove that all of that was under the intent to sell that information or that credit card to a person other than the issuer or other than the cardholder. An attorney’s job would be building a Dumfries credit card theft defense that contests the defendant’s intent to sell that information.
For the second scenario of credit card theft, the prosecution would have to prove that the defendant received a credit card or a credit card number and that they knew it was lost, mislaid, or delivered under a mistake as to the identity of the addressee or cardholder, and that the person retained possession of it with the intent to sell it or transfer it to somebody other than the credit card issuer or cardholder.
In the third scenario, the prosecutor would have to prove that the accused is not the issuer and that they sold the credit card number or bought a credit card from a person other than the issuer. In other words, if the issue is buying and selling a credit card, they would have to prove that it was done by a person other than the issuer.
Fourthly, they would have to prove that the accused was not the issuer during a 12-month period and received a credit card or credit card number issued in the name of two or more persons which they have reason to know retained them in a situation that violates the credit card theft statute. Getting two credit cards during a 12-month period with the intent to defraud the issuer is a violation, so that’s what the prosecutor would have to prove.
How a Dumfries Credit Card Theft Attorney Builds a Defense
When building a Dumfries credit card theft defense, a lawyer should first look into how that information was taken and whether or not the person authorized to do so. The lawyer could then ask questions trying to ascertain the authority that the person had to use or to take that information. This comes up a lot in situations of employer-employee where an employee has in their possession or authority a credit card that was given by the employer, uses that card frequently, and then one time pulls that credit card, by mistake, and uses it for a personal transaction.
A defense attorney would try to find out what intent the person had at the time they used a credit or they used the credit card number. Lawyers can also try to understand the scenario or the circumstances surrounding what took place, whether it be a work transaction or a personal transaction, what were the circumstances surrounding that, what witnesses were present, any investigators that would be brought on the case, etc.
Lawyers are also trying to see if there is any evidence that could be put forth on behalf of the accused. Those are some of the things that a lawyer would take into account, plus things like a person’s criminal history or any prior convictions that could aggravate the punishment. They take into account the individual’s prior convictions as well as any psychological or mental issues that a person has. If an individual has been charged with credit card theft, they should seek the guidance of an experienced theft lawyer that could begin building a Dumfries credit card theft defense for them.
