Bill to Clarify Punishment Over Gift Card Theft Introduced

A bill to clarify the punishment over stealing gift cards and whether the theft would be a misdemeanor or felony, was introduced in the Assembly over the weekend.

Assembly Bill 710, authored by Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), would alter gift card thefts to make it more in line with Proposition 47. Specifically, AB 710 would “make a person who, with the intent to defraud, acquires or retains possession of a gift card or gift card redemption information, or uses an acquired or forged card, without the consent of the cardholder, card issuer, or gift card seller, or, with the intent to defraud, devises a scheme to obtain a gift card or gift card redemption information from a cardholder, card issuer, or gift card seller by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises guilty of theft, punishable as a misdemeanor, and, if the things of value that are acquired or used exceed $950, guilty of grand theft, punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony.”

The bill would also make a person who, with the intent to defraud, alters or tampers with a gift card guilty of forgery, punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony.

Currently, California state law makes every person who, with intent to defraud, sell, transfer, or convey an access card, without the cardholder’s or issuer’s consent guilty of grand theft. In addition, existing law makes every person who, with the intent to defraud, design, make, alter, or embosse a counterfeit access card or utter or otherwise attempt to use a counterfeit access card guilty of forgery or theft.

Simply put, AB 710 differentiates between gift cards and access cards and makes it clear what the differences are between gift card forgeries, gift card thefts, and gift card grand thefts.

As gift card thefts, frauds, and forgeries are on the rise in the U.S., with many gift card tamperings linked to organized crime groups involved with fentanyl production and smuggling, illegal immigration, and human trafficking, clarity was needed with current gift card theft laws. A rise in gift card scams during the 2024 holiday season also prompted a need for specific punishments, including how it pertained to alterations made by Prop 47 and the recent Prop 36.

“Gift card theft and fraud has been growing fast,” said Nathan Cole, an independent investigator in Los Angeles, to the Globe. “It’s gotten to be such a specific type of crime that it needs to be differentiated and needs to be clarified. So, yes, this bill works out very well.

“I’m not a big fan of Prop 47, and I hate that $950 mark being there. Gift cards are more likely to be used in crimes as an easy way to bring over cash. Gift cards can go into the thousands. So they are ripe for scams and being used in crimes. I mean, look at all the incidents where people are contacted and told to pay a mysterious bank fine or overdraft with a gift card, only to find out that they were scammed. So clarity was needed.

“AB 710 is a great first step in addressing all this. Don’t get me wrong, I think the punishments need to be more severe over this as gift cards are essentially micro bearer bonds. But we’re getting specific about it now.”