Under the legislation, it is illegal to possess and use devices to access information encoded on computer chips or magnetic strips of payment cards. Offenders will face felony charges.
During a press conference, Rep. Hill said HB 1918 would combat debit or credit card theft. She stressed that a person who owns a credit card skimming device has no use for it other than for “criminal, deceitful, and deceptive” purposes.
In addition, the Rep. Hill said she was once a victim of credit card skimming at a convenience store. She is “well aware of the feelings of fears and helplessness” when such incident happens to a person.
Additional tool to help law enforcement prosecute credit card skimmers
According to her, “My legislation would give one more tool to use in prosecuting these thieves. My hope is that the General Assembly moves quickly and sends this bill to Gov. Tom Wolf.”
On the other hand, Greg Rowe of Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association agreed that “prosecutors need additional tools to help fight credit card fraud such as skimming.” He added that HB 1918 will allow law enforcement to keep up with people who uses sophisticated devices to commit credit card fraud.
