Credit Card Abuse Laws

Another common crime in cyberspace is the stealing of credit card information. People use the stolen credit card information to purchase products and services at the expense of others. This leads to losses in millions of dollars to credit card companies, card holders and various organizations. The losses due to credit card fraud amount to more than $400 million annually. Internationally, laws have been framed to prohibit the theft of financial information. Under one such law framed in the US, producing, using or distributing credit card information knowingly and with an intention to defraud is considered a crime.

Similarly, phone users have secret access codes for obtaining long distance services. Some people use special software to obtain the codes. The software generates a large number of random codes over the phone lines and records the number of successes (the codes that are able to access long distance service) and failures (the codes that are not able to access the service). At the end, the software draws up a list of access codes. Advanced software can also be used to identify the PINs of stolen credit c ards or ATM cards in order to withdraw money using them. The US law has declared the possession of such software or any other mechanism to generate such code as a crime. The possession of 15 or more access codes with an individual is also prohibited under the law.

Some web sites may seek the credit card information or long distance service account numbers in return for free gifts and other offers. They can sell this information to other users. People are advised to be wary of such offers. If they are the members of the site, they may voice their opinion against the activities of the site and suggest them to discontinue such services. If the site continues with criminal activities (like revealing and selling confidential information), users of the site may cancel their membership and report the site's activities to the concerned authority. Instead, if people continue to use the site, later they may be subjected to prosecution because of their association with the site even if they have not used the information for any personal gain.

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