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Title 15 — Commerce and TradeRelease 119-73

§1644 Fraudulent use of credit cards; penalties

Title 15 › Chapter CHAPTER 41— - CONSUMER CREDIT PROTECTION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - CONSUMER CREDIT COST DISCLOSURE › Part Part B— - Credit Transactions › § 1644

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

It is a crime to knowingly use, try to use, or plan with others to use fake, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained credit cards in deals that cross state lines or national borders to get money, goods, services, or anything of value when the total is $1,000 or more in any one-year period. It is also a crime to knowingly move or sell those cards across state or national lines, to use interstate or international means to sell or ship them, or to receive, hide, use, or carry money or goods that were gotten with such cards that total $1,000 or more in any one-year period (except travel tickets). Receiving, selling, or moving travel tickets bought with those cards is a crime if the tickets total $500 or more in any one-year period. Punishment can be a fine up to $10,000, prison for up to ten years, or both.

Full Legal Text

Title 15, §1644

Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Whoever knowingly in a transaction affecting interstate or foreign commerce, uses or attempts or conspires to use any counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained credit card to obtain money, goods, services, or anything else of value which within any one-year period has a value aggregating $1,000 or more; or
(b)Whoever, with unlawful or fraudulent intent, transports or attempts or conspires to transport in interstate or foreign commerce a counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained credit card knowing the same to be counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained; or
(c)Whoever, with unlawful or fraudulent intent, uses any instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce to sell or transport a counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained credit card knowing the same to be counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained; or
(d)Whoever knowingly receives, conceals, uses, or transports money, goods, services, or anything else of value (except tickets for interstate or foreign transportation) which (1) within any one-year period has a value aggregating $1,000 or more, (2) has moved in or is part of, or which constitutes interstate or foreign commerce, and (3) has been obtained with a counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained credit card; or
(e)Whoever knowingly receives, conceals, uses, sells, or transports in interstate or foreign commerce one or more tickets for interstate or foreign transportation, which (1) within any one-year period have a value aggregating $500 or more, and (2) have been purchased or obtained with one or more counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained credit cards; or
(f)Whoever in a transaction affecting interstate or foreign commerce furnishes money, property, services, or anything else of value, which within any one-year period has a value aggregating $1,000 or more, through the use of any counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained credit card knowing the same to be counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen, or fraudulently obtained— shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1974—Pub. L. 93–495 generally reorganized provisions by designating former unlettered paragraph cls. (a) to (f), and as so designated, expanded prohibitions relating to fraudulent use of credit cards, decreased amount required for fraudulent use from a retail value aggregating $5,000, or more, to enumerated amounts for particular activities, and increased the punishment from a sentence of not more than five years to a sentence of not more than ten years.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1974 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 93–495 effective Oct. 28, 1974, see section 416 of Pub. L. 93–495, set out as an

Effective Date

note under section 1665a of this title.

Effective Date

Pub. L. 91–508, title V, § 503(3), Oct. 26, 1970, 84 Stat. 1127, provided that: “section 134 of such Act [this section] applies to offenses committed on or after such date of enactment [Oct. 26, 1970].”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

15 U.S.C. § 1644

Title 15 — Commerce and Trade

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73