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SF 266

A bill for an act relating to theft, forgery, and fraud involving a gift card, and providing penalties. Effective date: 07/01/2025.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Scott Webster

Creates new Iowa crimes (714.2D) for gift-card theft, forgery, and fraud with tiered penalties based on loss value and six-month aggregation of retail losses.

Signed by Governor.
#criminallaw #felonies #forgery #fraud #giftcertificates #misdemeanors #theft
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · SF 266

Summary — SF 266 (2025): Crimes Involving Gift Cards

Status and effective date
- Signed by the Governor: April 18, 2025.
- Effective: July 1, 2025.
- Origin: Introduced Feb 11, 2025 (Senate), enacted as new Iowa Code section 714.2D.
- Key legislative steps: Passed Senate (Mar 12, 2025) 48–0; passed House (Mar 19, 2025) 96–0; enrolled and sent to Governor; signed Apr 18, 2025.

Purpose
- Establishes specific criminal offenses and tiered penalties for theft, forgery, and fraud involving gift cards (physical or digital), and creates definitions and charging rules tailored to gift-card schemes.

Definitions (selected)
- Gift card: physical or digital card, code, or device issued on a prepaid basis redeemable at one or more merchants; includes reloadable/variable-load cards.
- Gift card redemption information: unique information that allows access, transfer, or spending of funds on the card.
- Cardholder, card issuer, gift card seller, and “value” (the greatest reasonable economic loss, including full face value or potential value of variable-load cards).

Key criminal provisions and penalties
1. Unauthorized acquisition/possession
- With intent to defraud, acquiring or retaining a gift card or redemption information without consent = theft — aggravated misdemeanor.

  1. Tampering/altering

    • With intent to defraud, altering or tampering with a gift card = forgery — aggravated misdemeanor.

  2. Fraudulent schemes (obtaining card or redemption information by false pretenses)

    • Tiered penalties based on value involved:
      • > $5,000: Class C felony.
      • > $1,000 and ≤ $5,000: Class D felony.
      • > $500 and ≤ $1,000: aggravated misdemeanor.
      • ≤ $500: serious misdemeanor.

  3. Using unlawfully obtained card/redemption info to get value

    • Same tiered structure for theft based on value (<=$500 up to >$5,000).

Aggregation rule
- Retail merchandise value obtained in violation may be aggregated across any six-month period for charging and classification purposes.

Criminal sanction context (statutory ranges cited in fiscal note)
- Serious misdemeanor: up to 1 year confinement; fines roughly $430–$2,560.
- Aggravated misdemeanor: up to 2 years; fines roughly $855–$8,540.
- Class D felony: up to 5 years; fines roughly $1,025–$10,245.
- Class C felony: up to 10 years; fines roughly $1,370–$13,660.

Fiscal and system impacts
- Creates a new offense; correctional impact is uncertain due to lack of historical conviction data.
- Fiscal note indicates potential increases in judicial, correctional, and indigent defense costs; average State cost-per-offense ranges estimated (e.g., Class C felony ~$14.9k–$25.6k; Class D ~$11.9k–$19.1k; aggravated misdemeanor ~$6.8k–$11.8k; serious misdemeanor ~$420–$5,000).
- Assumptions include a six-month delay from effective date to first affected offender entries, $50/day marginal county jail cost, and unchanged sentencing/plea patterns. Minority impact could not be estimated.

Who is affected
- Consumers (cardholders), merchants/gift-card sellers, card issuers, retailers, law enforcement, courts, state and county corrections systems, and public defender/indigent defense resources.

Practical effect
- Clarifies and criminalizes a range of gift-card–related fraudulent behaviors with graduated penalties tied to the value involved, and enables prosecutors to aggregate retail losses over six months to determine offense class.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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