§ 6-3-803 — Unlawful skimming of credit, debit or other electronic payment cards; penalties

(a) As used in this section:
(i) "Authorized card user" means any person with the
empowerment, permission or competence to act in the usage of any
electronic payment card including, but not limited to, a credit
card, charge card, debit card, hotel key card, stored value card
or any other card that allows the user to obtain, purchase or
receive goods, services, money or anything else of value from a
merchant;
(ii) "Electronic payment card" means a credit card,
charge card, debit card, hotel key card, stored value card or
any other card that is issued to an authorized card user and
that allows the user to obtain, purchase or receive goods,
services, money or anything else of value from a merchant;
(iii) "Merchant" means an owner or operator of any
retail mercantile establishment or his agent, employee, lessee,
consignee, officer, director, franchisee or independent
contractor who receives from an authorized user of an electronic
payment card, or someone the person believes to be an authorized
user, an electronic payment card or information from an
electronic payment card, or what the person believes to be an
electronic payment card or information from an electronic
payment card, as the instrument for obtaining, purchasing or
receiving goods, services, money or anything else of value from
the person;
(iv) "Re-encoder" means an electronic device that
places encoded information from the magnetic strip or stripe of
an electronic payment card onto the magnetic strip or stripe of
a different electronic payment card;
(v) "Scanning device" means a scanner, reader or any
other electronic device that is used to access, read, scan,
obtain, memorize or store, temporarily or permanently,
information encoded on the magnetic strip or stripe of an
electronic payment card.
(b) A person is guilty of unlawful skimming if the person
uses:
(i) A scanning device to access, read, obtain or
memorize, temporarily or permanently, information encoded on the
magnetic strip or stripe of an electronic payment card without
the permission of the authorized user of the electronic payment
card, with the intent to defraud the authorized user, the issuer
of the authorized user's electronic payment card or a merchant;
(ii) A re-encoder to place information encoded on the
magnetic strip or stripe of an electronic payment card onto the
magnetic strip or stripe of a different card without the
permission of the authorized user of the card from which the
information is being re-encoded, with the intent to defraud the
authorized user, the issuer of the authorized user's electronic
payment card or a merchant.
(c) Unlawful skimming is a felony:
(i) Punishable by imprisonment for not more than five
(5) years, a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars
($10,000.00), or both, for a first conviction;
(ii) Punishable by imprisonment for not more than ten
(10) years, a fine of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars
($25,000.00), or both, for a second or subsequent conviction.