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S5229119th CongressWALLET

SWIPES Act

Sponsored By: Senator Moody, Ashley [R-FL]

Introduced

Summary

Stronger federal penalties for gift card and elder scams. The SWIPES Act broadens federal fraud rules to treat gift cards and many digital credentials as access devices and creates a separate penalty for crimes that target people over 60.

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  • Seniors: Adds a new offense that tacks on a mandatory consecutive 2-year prison term for felony frauds committed against people over 60. That sentence is not probationable and generally must run separately from other sentences.
  • Online collectors and fraudsters: Expands access-device liability to cover directly or indirectly obtaining devices, including creating or running websites that collect access device information. The law explicitly lists gift cards, passwords, cryptographic keys, passkeys, one-time passwords, hardware security keys, and similar credentials.
  • Penalties and money laundering: Raises maximum prison terms for access-device crimes up to 30 years in the most serious cases and creates escalated penalties when offenders handle large numbers of counterfeit or unauthorized devices. The bill also adds gift cards to the statutory list of "monetary instruments" for money-laundering law.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.

Higher penalties for senior fraud

This bill would add a 2‑year prison enhancement for felony frauds committed against people age 60 or older. "Knowingly" would include actual knowledge of the victim's age, deliberate ignorance of age, or reckless disregard of age. The extra two years would not be served on probation and would generally run after the sentence for the underlying felony. These rules would take effect upon enactment.

Tougher rules for gift‑card fraud

This bill would widen federal access‑device crimes to cover gift cards and many digital credentials. It would make it a crime to get or use those devices, including by running a website that collects them. The bill would add the words "or other assets" after "transfer of funds," and would name instruments like gift cards, passwords, private keys, passkeys, one‑time passwords, and hardware security keys. It would raise maximum prison terms (for example, 10 → 20 years, 15 → 25 years, 20 → 30 years) and add higher penalties when counterfeit or unauthorized devices exceed 500 or 1,000 (up to 25 or 30 years). The bill would also define "gift card" (physical or virtual, reloadable or not, redeemable at single, affiliated, or unaffiliated merchants) and make gift cards a covered "monetary instrument" for money‑laundering law.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Moody, Ashley [R-FL]

FL • R

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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