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Senate committee advances bill to make gift-card tampering a felony
Summary
The panel moved HB 447 to the Senate floor; Representative Gullett said the bill would criminalize possession of tampered redemption data and packaging for gift cards and raise penalties to felonies (1–10 years and up to $5,000) to aid prosecution of large retail fraud schemes.
Representative Gullett told the Senate Judiciary Committee that gift-card fraud has grown into an organized retail problem and presented House Bill 447 (LC 481574S) as a fix to a gap in current law. "Gift-card fraud is a growing problem in Georgia and across the United States for retailers," he said, describing schemes in which criminals remove redemption data or PINs from packaging and later activate and drain cards.
The bill would define targeted sensitive redemption data and expand criminal liability for tampering and possessing packaged redemption information, applying to both open- and closed-loop cards. The author said the measure would provide prosecutors with new tools, proposing felony penalties of one to ten years’ imprisonment and fines up to $5,000.
Retail representatives, including Brian Hudson of The Home Depot and a representative from a Retailers Association, told the committee they support the bill. After brief questions, the committee moved and unanimously passed the committee substitute; a Senate sponsor was identified to carry the bill to the floor.
Supporters framed the bill as addressing a large-scale fraud pattern; no committee amendments or fiscal objections were recorded during the hearing.
