2010 Georgia Code
TITLE 16 - CRIMES AND OFFENSES
CHAPTER 9 - FORGERY AND FRAUDULENT PRACTICES
ARTICLE 3 - ILLEGAL USE OF FINANCIAL TRANSACTION CARDS
§ 16-9-32 - Forgery of financial transaction card

O.C.G.A. 16-9-32 (2010)
16-9-32. Forgery of financial transaction card


(a) A person commits the offense 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;

(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; or

(3) He, not being the cardholder or a person authorized by him, with intent to defraud the issuer; 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 when he 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, erases, or otherwise alters magnetically, electronically, electromagnetically, or by any other means whatsoever information on a financial transaction card which will permit acceptance of that card by any automated banking device.

(e) Conviction of the offense of financial transaction card forgery shall be punishable as provided in subsection (b) of Code Section 16-9-38.

(f) When a person other than the purported issuer possesses two or more financial transaction cards which are falsely made, falsely encoded, or falsely embossed, such possession shall be prima-facie evidence that said cards were obtained in violation of paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a) of this Code section.