Yes, if you possess it knowingly, willfully, and with intent to defraud. Penal Code section 502.6 makes possessing a card scanning device or a reencoder with that intent a misdemeanor, even if the device was never used and no card was ever charged. Without intent to defraud, owning a card reader is not a crime under this section.

What counts as a “scanning device” or “reencoder”

Penal Code section 502.6(e) defines both devices:

  • A scanning device is “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 a payment card’s magnetic strip or stripe.
  • A reencoder is “an electronic device that places encoded information from the magnetic strip or stripe of a payment card” onto the strip or stripe of a different payment card.

A “payment card” is a credit card, debit card, or other card issued to an authorized user that lets the user obtain goods, services, money, or anything else of value. Both definitions refer to information on a card’s magnetic strip or stripe.

Subdivision (a) covers knowingly, willfully, and with intent to defraud possessing a scanning device, or using one with that intent to capture a card’s stripe data without the authorized user’s permission. Subdivision (b) covers the same possession or use of a reencoder, including placing the data on a card or on “any electronic medium that allows an authorized transaction to occur.”

The penalty is a misdemeanor

Each violation is a misdemeanor. The sentence can include county jail time of as much as a year, “a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000),” or both. The section has no felony option and no dollar-value tiers. A scanning device or reencoder that the defendant owns can be seized and destroyed as contraband, and a computer, software, or data that the defendant owns and used in the offense, or used to store data obtained through it, is subject to forfeiture (subdivisions (c) and (d)).

Section 502.6(f) says it does not preclude prosecution under any other law, and several access card statutes can come up in the same case:

  • Re-encoding a card. Under Penal Code section 484i(b), changing the account information on an access card, including information “encoded in a magnetic stripe,” with intent to defraud, so that its charges are billed to someone other than the cardholder is forgery.
  • Card-making equipment. Section 484i(c) punishes designing, making, possessing, or trafficking in “card making equipment or incomplete access cards” with intent that they be used to make counterfeit access cards; it can be sentenced as a misdemeanor, with no more than a year in county jail, or as a felony under Penal Code section 1170(h). Penal Code section 484d defines card making equipment as equipment or another device “designed, used, or intended to be used to produce an access card.”
  • Using the data. Using access card account information that was obtained or retained in violation of section 484e or 484f to get money, goods, or services, with intent to defraud, is theft under Penal Code section 484g, and grand theft if the total “exceeds nine hundred fifty dollars ($950) in any consecutive six-month period.”

These statutes use a broader term than section 502.6. Under section 484d, an “access card” includes any card, plate, code, account number, or other means of account access that can be used to obtain money, goods, services, or anything else of value, so they are not limited to data on a magnetic stripe. The firm’s credit card fraud page covers those statutes in more detail.

What this means for you

  • A possession charge does not require that the device was used or that anyone lost money, but it does require intent to defraud. What you intended, and any legitimate reason you had the device, is central.
  • What was found with the device, such as blank or altered cards, card-making equipment, or stored card data, can decide whether you face one charge or several.
  • Do not destroy, alter, or wipe the device or any stored data. That does not undo a possession charge and can create separate evidence problems.
  • Keep records that show a lawful use, such as purchase records and a merchant account for a business card reader, and give them to your lawyer.

Talk to a lawyer about the facts of your case

If you are facing a charge involving a skimmer, reencoder, or related equipment, talk with the Law Offices of David S. Chesley about what was actually found and how the charges fit together. Call (800) 755-5174 to discuss your case.