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.