§70.2. Refund or access device application fraud

A. No person shall with the intent to defraud use a false or fictitious name or any other identifying information as his own or use the name or any other identifying information of any other person without that person's knowledge and consent for the purpose of:

(1) Obtaining or attempting to obtain a refund for merchandise returned to a business establishment or a refund on a ticket or other document that is evidence of services purchased from a business establishment; or

(2) Obtaining or attempting to obtain an access device.

B. For the purposes of this Section, "any other identifying information" shall include, but not be limited to, an address, telephone number, social security number, account number, or any other information through which the identity of a person may be ascertained. "Access device" means any card, plate, code, account number, or other means of account access that can be used to obtain anything of value, whether contemporaneously or not.

C.(1) Whoever commits the crime of refund fraud shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both.

(2) Whoever commits the crime of access device application fraud when the misappropriation or taking amounts to a value of twenty-five thousand dollars or more shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than twenty years, or may be fined not more than fifty thousand dollars, or both.

(3) Whoever commits the crime of access device application fraud when the misappropriation or taking amounts to a value of five thousand dollars or more, but less than a value of twenty-five thousand dollars, the offender shall be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than ten years, or may be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or both.

(4) Whoever commits the crime of access device application fraud when the misappropriation or taking amounts to a value of one thousand dollars or more but less than a value of five thousand dollars shall be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than five years, or may be fined not more than three thousand dollars, or both.

(5) When the misappropriation or taking amounts to less than a value of one thousand dollars, the offender shall be imprisoned for not more than six months, or may be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or both. If the offender in such cases has been convicted of theft two or more times previously, upon any subsequent conviction he shall be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than two years, or may be fined not more than two thousand dollars, or both.

D. When there has been a misappropriation or taking by a number of distinct acts of the offender, the aggregate amount of the misappropriation or taking shall determine the grade of the offense.

Added by Acts 1983, No. 420, §1. Acts 1986, No. 871, §1; Acts 1997, No. 1255, §1; Acts 2006, No. 143, §1; Acts 2010, No. 585, §1; Acts 2017, No. 281, §1.