How Serious a Crime Is Credit Card Theft and Fraud in Virginia

The credit and debit card fraud laws in the Commonwealth of Virginia are significantly severe. In fact, there are several harsh laws related to such frauds and typically fall into three wide categories, viz. credit card theft, credit card forgery, and credit card fraud. In the following paragraphs you will learn how serious a crime is credit card theft and fraud in Virginia:

  • Credit card fraud (§18.2-195. et. seq.) is penalized as class 1 misdemeanor when the fraud is below $200 in a period of six months; alternatively, it would be class 6 felony.
  • Credit card theft (§18.2-192) is grand larceny and penalized with up to twelve months in jail as well as significant monetary fines and severe restitution.
  • Credit card forgery (§18.2-193) is a Class 5 felony charge which is punishable by jail time, monetary penalties, as well as several other consequences.

Considering how serious a crime is credit card theft and fraud in Virginia, in case you are accused of credit or debit card fraud, theft or forgery charges, then you must retain a reliable defense attorney as soon as possible to protect your rights and get an optimistic outcome in your favor.

When you lose your credit card, or it is stolen, then you can be in a hurry. More so, if you are spending your vacations away from home, you might be puzzled as what to do next. We give you some tips as follows:

  1. If it is a theft (or a theft that you have not heard), the most urgent thing is to deactivate the cards.
  2. It is also essential to file the corresponding complaint because it is the best way to have a document with legal validity that demonstrates what happened. Not only in case of possible damages that occur in your account, but also to recover the documentation (ID, driving license, etc.) that you had in your wallet. You should leverage legal help as laws related to credit card theft and fraud in Virginia are articulated to help victims get adequate damages of their losses.

After addressing the problems that can occur in your account if someone takes your card and begins to use it, you have another front to solve to continue your vacation: you need to have access to your money again.

The major operators in the sector with which banks work, such as Visa or MasterCard, can launch the issuance of an emergency card to get out of the emergency situation. At the telephone numbers of urgent operation, you can request that they help you with this procedure or they put you in contact with the operator of the card.

If you are in a more exotic destination, you have it more complicated, although you always have the option of looking for a person of confidence to whom you can make a transfer through the internet to give you that money in cash. At the end of the day, we travel to live adventures and have something to tell such as the situation of losing your card.