§ 28-618 — Financial transactions; terms, defined

For purposes of sections 28-618 to 28-630 :
(1) Account holder means the person or business entity named on the face of a financial transaction device for whose benefit the financial transaction device is issued by an issuer;
(2) Acquirer means any business organization, financial institution, or agent of such organization or institution which authorizes a merchant to accept payment by financial transaction device for money, property, services, or anything else of value;
(3) Automated banking device means any machine which, when properly activated by a financial transaction device or a personal identification code, may be used for any purpose for which a financial transaction device is issued;
(4) Counterfeit financial transaction device means any financial transaction device which is fictitious, altered, forged, stolen, obtained as part of a scheme to defraud, or otherwise unlawfully obtained and which may or may not be embossed with account information or a company logo or any facsimile, false representation, depiction, or component of a financial transaction device;
(5) Embossing means any process in which account numbers are placed on financial transaction devices that results in the number being raised from the surface of the device;
(6) Expired financial transaction device means a financial transaction device which is no longer valid because the term shown on it has elapsed;
(7) Financial transaction device means any instrument or device whether known as a credit card, credit plate, bank service card, banking card, check guarantee card, debit card, electronic funds transfer card, or account number representing a financial account. Such device shall affect the financial interest, standing, or obligation of the financial account for services or financial payments for money, credit, property, or services;
(8) Financial-transaction-device-making equipment means any equipment, impression, machine, mechanism, plate, or other device designed, used, or capable of being used to produce a financial transaction device, a counterfeit financial transaction device, or any aspect or component of a financial transaction device;
(9) Holographic means a photographic method that uses laser light to produce three-dimensional images;
(10) Intent to defraud means an unlawful attempt to secure money, credit, property, or services from an issuer, without permission of the account holder, for the benefit of any person other than the account holder;
(11) Issuer means any person or any financial or business entity that acquires financial rights by issuing, canceling, controlling, or distributing a financial transaction device;
(12) Magnetic encoding means any electronically encoded account holder information which is placed on a magnetic strip on the financial transaction device and is capable of being read by an electronic terminal such as an automatic teller machine or an electronic terminal at a merchant location also known as a point-of-sale terminal;
(13) Personal identification code means any grouping of letters, numbers, or symbols assigned to the account holder of a financial transaction device by the issuer to permit authorized electronic access of that account;
(14) Receives or receiving means acquiring possession or control of or accepting as security for a loan a financial transaction device;
(15) Revoked financial transaction device means a financial transaction device which is no longer valid because permission to use it has been suspended or terminated by the issuer;
(16) Sales form means any written, electronic, magnetic, or printed record of a financial transaction involving use of a financial transaction device;
(17) Sales form processing services means services provided to enable a person to obtain payment or credit for sales forms;
(18) Sales form processor means any bank, financial institution, or other entity which with authority from a bona fide association of issuers provides sales form processing services;
(19) Service mark means a word, name, symbol, or other device or any combination thereof to identify the goods or services of the entity from the goods and services of another entity;
(20) Skimmer device means an electronic or other device used to capture, record, store or transmit data from a financial transaction device or to capture or record an account holder's personal identification code;
(21) To falsely alter a financial transaction device means to change such device without the authority of anyone entitled to grant such authority, whether in complete or incomplete form, by means of erasure, obliteration, deletion, insertion of new matter, transposition of matter, or any other means, so that such device in its altered form falsely appears or purports to be in all respects an authentic creation of or fully authorized by its ostensible issuer;
(22) To falsely complete a financial transaction device means to transform an incomplete device into a complete one by adding, inserting, or changing matter without the authority of anyone entitled to grant such authority, so that the complete device falsely appears or purports to be in all respects an authentic creation of or fully authorized by its ostensible issuer;
(23) To falsely make a financial transaction device means to make or manufacture a device, whether complete or incomplete, which purports to be an authentic creation of its ostensible issuer but which is fictitious or, if real, the ostensible issuer did not authorize the making or the manufacturing thereof; and
(24) Traffic means to distribute, dispense, sell, transfer, or otherwise dispose of property or to buy, receive, possess, obtain control of, or use property with the intent to dispense, distribute, sell, transfer, or otherwise dispose of such property.

Legislative History

Source: Laws 1989, LB 372, § 2; Laws 1993, LB 81, § 55; Laws 2025, LB559, § 2. Effective Date: September 3, 2025 Annotations: By the plain language of subsection (7) of this section, the Legislature intended to include both tangible items such as credit cards and the account numbers reflected on such cards within the definition of a financial transaction device. As defined in subsection (7) of this section, a "financial transaction device" must be something which is capable of being used to execute a transaction in a financial account. State v. Rhea, 262 Neb. 886, 636 N.W.2d 364 (2001).