Miami Credit Card Fraud Lawyer

Providing Effective & Individualized Advocacy

Credit card fraud is a federal crime which relates to attempting or carrying out a scheme to deceive others and involves credit or debit cards. Plain theft may be implicated, such as where an assumed perpetrator steals someone’s credit card and uses it. Credit card fraud may also be performed via the internet or other computer crimes. Mainly, the crime would involve misrepresenting information, counterfeiting, forgery, or any other form of fraud or deception to possibly attain another’s credit card information or to deceive vendors by using a counterfeit card.

Contact us today for your free consultation from a Miami credit card fraud defense lawyer.

Some examples of credit card fraud include the following:

• Stolen credit card. When a credit card is lost or stolen, it remains usable until the holder informs the issuer that the card is lost. It is possible for a thief to make illegal purchases on a card until it is canceled. A thief could possibly purchase thousands of dollars in goods or services before the cardholder or the card issuer could recognize that the card was stolen.
• Skimming is theft of credit card information used in an unlawful transaction. It is usually an “inside job” by a deceitful employee of an authorized merchant.
• Carding is a term used for a process to authenticate the legitimacy of stolen card data. The thief inputs the card information on a website that has real-time transaction processing. If the card is processed successfully, the thief knows that the card is still active.
• Identity theft can be divided into two categories. The first is application fraud, which happens when a thief uses stolen or fake information to open an account under someone else’s name without their consent. The second is account takeover, which happens when a thief attempts to take over someone’s account by accumulating information about the proposed victim, then communicating with their card issuer impersonating as the actual cardholder, and asking for correspondence to be changed to a new address.

Penalties for credit card fraud can include arrest, prosecution and/or financial retribution. This is why it is highly important that you contact a skilled credit card fraud attorney in Miami as soon as possible if you are facing these charges.

Credit Card Fraud Penalties

Penalties for credit card fraud in the state of Florida may very depending on each case but may include:

Third Degree Felony - charged as a third degree felony when a person commits credit card fraud three times within a 6-month period or when a person commits fraud in a dollar amount of more than $100 or involving services or goods of more than $100 in value.

• Up to 5 years in prison
• Up to $5,000 in fines