SB 874 — Criminal Law: Gift Card Crimes (Maryland) — Summary
Status & Procedural Timeline
- Introduced: January 22, 2025 (first reader/filing in late January 2025).
- Committee assignment: Judicial Proceedings (and referred to Criminal Justice and related committees in subsequent action logs).
- Hearing: Scheduled February 26, 2025 at 1:00 p.m.
- Companion bill: HB 1074.
- Fiscal note: Department of Legislative Services estimates no material effect on State or local finances or operations.
Purpose / Intent
- To create a distinct set of criminal offenses specifically addressing theft, fraudulent manufacture/alteration, sale, purchase, possession, and signing of gift cards — aligning legal treatment of gift cards more closely with existing credit‑card statutes and closing gaps where general theft law may be less tailored.
Key Definitions
- “Gift card”: a paper, metal, plastic, or digital device (including cards with magnetic stripes) or an instrument bearing a code/account number that is issued by an issuer and can be used (in whole or part) to purchase money, goods, services or other value from the stored/prepaid balance or through accessible funds.
- The definition expressly excludes credit cards, electronic funds transfers, money, checks, drafts, or similar paper instruments.
- “Original gift card purchaser” and “intended gift card recipient” are defined to identify lawful owners/recipients.
Main Prohibitions / Offenses
1. Gift Card Theft
- Taking a gift card from another (or from another’s possession) with intent to defraud without consent of the issuer, original purchaser, or intended recipient.
- Receiving a gift card, with knowledge it was taken as above, with intent to use, sell, or transfer it to someone other than issuer/original purchaser/intended recipient.
- Receiving a gift card known to be lost, mislaid, or delivered by mistake and retaining it with intent to use, sell, or transfer it outside legitimate channels.
- Selling a gift card unless the seller is the issuer or an authorized seller; buying a gift card from anyone other than the issuer or an authorized seller is prohibited.
- Receiving a gift card (if not the issuer) that is known to have been taken or retained under circumstances described above.
- Falsely Making / Falsely Embossing Gift Cards
- “Falsely emboss”: creating a gift card without issuer authorization.
- “Falsely make”: altering a legitimately issued gift card or creating a device that purports to be an issuer‑authorized gift card.
- Prohibits making, embossing, transferring, possessing falsely made or embossed cards with intent to defraud, and prohibits anyone other than the intended recipient from signing a gift card to defraud.
Penalties
- Tiered misdemeanors based on the stored or accessible balance (or purported balance for falsified cards):
- Less than $100: up to 90 days imprisonment and/or a fine up to $500.
- $100 or more:
- First conviction: up to 6 months imprisonment and/or a fine up to $500.
- Second or subsequent conviction: up to 1 year imprisonment and/or a fine up to $500.
- These penalties are parallel for theft and for falsely made/embossed gift cards (taking into account "purported" balances for counterfeit/falsified items).
Who Is Affected
- Consumers: recipients and purchasers of gift cards (greater protection of intended recipients and original purchasers).
- Retailers, resellers, and secondary-market operators: restrictions on buying/selling gift cards except where authorized by the issuer may affect secondary marketplaces and buy‑back operations.
- Issuers and authorized sellers: strengthened statutory protection for their products and channels.
- Law enforcement and prosecutors: creation of discrete offenses may affect charging practices and evidence standards in gift‑card–related theft and fraud cases.
Fiscal & Implementation Notes
- Fiscal note: no material fiscal or operational impact on State or local governments per the Department of Legislative Services.
- The bill amends the Criminal Law article to add gift‑card–specific provisions alongside existing credit‑card statutes.
Practical Effect
- SB 874 clarifies and criminalizes a range of gift‑card misconduct (theft, resale outside authorized channels, counterfeiting/alteration, fraudulent signing), creates tiered misdemeanor penalties keyed to card value, and narrows commercial resale activity to issuer‑authorized sellers — aiming to reduce gift‑card fraud and illicit resale.
