Quick Answer
House Bill 447 created O.C.G.A. 16-9-64, which took effect on July 1, 2026. It makes three new crimes, gift card theft, gift card forgery, and gift card fraud, out of four kinds of conduct: taking or keeping a gift card or its redemption information, altering or tampering with a card or its packaging, scheming to get a card through false pretenses, and using a card obtained in any of those ways. Every one requires intent to defraud. Every conviction carries 1 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000, no matter how much money was on the card.
Key Takeaways
- HB 447 became Act 627 of the 2026 session and is codified at O.C.G.A. 16-9-64. It applies to conduct on or after July 1, 2026.
- Tampering with a gift card or its packaging with intent to defraud is now “gift card forgery,” a felony on its own, even if no money is ever spent.
- The statute has no dollar threshold. A $25 card and a $500 card carry the same 1 to 10 year range.
- “Gift card” covers physical and digital cards, store cards and network-branded cards, activated or not.
- The State must prove intent to defraud. That element, along with identity and the facts behind any loss figure, is where most defenses are built.
Why Georgia Wrote a Gift Card Statute
Gift cards sit in an odd place in criminal law. They work like cash at the register, but legally they are a mix of merchandise, a prepaid account, and a string of numbers. Before HB 447, a prosecutor in Fulton County had to fit a gift card scheme into statutes written for other things.
The options were general theft statutes, such as theft by taking or theft by deception under O.C.G.A. 16-8-3; shoplifting under 16-8-14; forgery under 16-9-1; or the financial transaction card laws. Each fit some cases and not others. The financial transaction card definition in O.C.G.A. 16-9-30 lists credit cards, credit plates, bank services cards, banking cards and check guarantee cards. It never mentions gift cards. And under the theft statutes, the grade of the crime depends on value, which is hard to pin down when a card was tampered with before anyone loaded money onto it.
HB 447 removes those problems for prosecutors. It defines the card, the information on it, and the people involved, and it attaches one felony penalty to every form of the offense. The House sponsor was Representative Joseph Gullett, and the Senate sponsor was Senator Randy Robertson, according to the Judicial Council of Georgia’s 2026 enacted legislation summary. The General Assembly’s own summary of 2026 general statutes lists it as Act 627, effective July 1, 2026.
The Four New Felonies Under HB 447 (Effective July 1, 2026)
The text of HB 447 as passed adds one Code section with six subsections. Subsection (a) holds the definitions. Subsections (b) through (e) describe four separate felonies. Subsection (f) sets the penalty. Two of the four carry the same name, gift card theft, so the law creates three named crimes from four kinds of conduct.
Subsection (b): gift card theft by acquiring or keeping
A person commits gift card theft if, with intent to defraud, he or she acquires or retains possession of a gift card or gift card redemption information without the consent of the cardholder, the card issuer, or the gift card seller.
Two words do a lot of work. “Retains” means a person who came into possession innocently can still commit the crime by keeping the card once the intent to defraud forms. “Redemption information” means the card number and PIN can be stolen without the plastic ever leaving the rack.
Subsection (c): gift card forgery
A person commits gift card forgery if, with intent to defraud, he or she alters or tampers with a gift card or its packaging. This is the provision behind the headline. The crime is complete at the moment of tampering. No one has to load money onto the card, and no one has to lose a dollar.
Subsection (d): gift card fraud
A person commits gift card fraud if, with intent to defraud, he or she devises a scheme to obtain a gift card or its redemption information from a cardholder, a card issuer, or a gift card seller by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises. The wording is close to the federal wire fraud statute, and it reaches the classic phone scam in which a caller pretends to be from a government agency or a utility and tells the victim to buy cards and read off the numbers.
Subsection (e): gift card theft by using
A person also commits gift card theft if, with intent to defraud, he or she uses a gift card or its redemption information, obtained in violation of subsections (b), (c), or (d), to get money, goods, services, or anything else of value. This is the cash-out step. The person spending the balance does not need to be the person who stole or tampered with the card, but the State must prove that he or she acted with intent to defraud.
The definitions that set the reach
Subsection (a) defines the terms, and the definitions are broad:
- Gift card means a physical or digital closed-loop or open-loop gift card, “whether activated or inactivated.”
- Closed-loop gift card is a prepaid card, code, or device redeemable at a single merchant or a group of affiliated merchants, such as a single retailer’s store card.
- Open-loop gift card is a prepaid card, code, or device redeemable at multiple unaffiliated merchants within a payment card network.
- Gift card redemption information is information unique to each card that lets the cardholder access, transfer, or spend the funds.
- Cardholder is the person to whom the card was sold, gifted, or issued after an authorized sale.
- Card issuer is the person that issues the card, and gift card seller is a merchant in the business of selling cards to consumers.
- Value means the greatest economic loss the issuer, seller, or cardholder might reasonably suffer, including the full face or load value of the card, whether or not it was activated.
Card Tampering, Packaging Swaps and Resale
Gift card tampering is a known consumer risk. The Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on avoiding and reporting gift card scams tells shoppers to inspect a card before buying, make sure the protective stickers are intact, check that the PIN is not showing, and hand any tampered card to a cashier or manager. HB 447 is Georgia’s criminal-law response to the same problem.
What tampering looks like in a case file
In general terms, tampering schemes target cards still hanging on the rack. Someone gets the card number and PIN, restores the packaging so it looks untouched, and puts the card back on display. When a shopper later buys the card and loads money onto it, the person who recorded the numbers drains the balance. Variations include swapping the barcode or the card inside the package so the shopper’s payment loads a different card.
Under HB 447, each stage is its own crime:
- Opening or altering the package or the card with intent to defraud is gift card forgery under subsection (c).
- Recording the number and PIN without consent is gift card theft under subsection (b), because the redemption information was acquired without the consent of the seller or issuer.
- Spending the drained balance is gift card theft under subsection (e).
Because “gift card” includes inactivated cards, it does not matter that the card held no money when it was altered. That closes the gap that made value-based theft charges awkward.
Packaging swaps and price games
Some cases look more like shoplifting. Georgia’s shoplifting statute already covers altering a price tag, moving goods from one container to another, and swapping labels. When the item is a gift card, the State now has a choice. Shoplifting over $500 is a felony carrying 1 to 10 years under 16-8-14, but shoplifting of $500 or less is a misdemeanor. HB 447 has no such line. A packaging swap on a single low-value card can be charged as a felony from the start.
Resale of cards
Some cases involve selling cards rather than spending them. A seller who obtained the cards through theft, tampering, or a scam can be charged under subsection (b) for retaining them, and the sale itself can support subsection (e) if it was a use of the card to obtain money. A buyer who knows or should know the cards were stolen faces the older crime of theft by receiving stolen property under O.C.G.A. 16-8-7, and a buyer who resells them with intent to defraud may fall under HB 447 too.
Not every discounted card is a stolen card. Buying and selling unwanted gift cards is not a crime in itself, and HB 447 does not ban resale; it targets resale with intent to defraud. In a resale case, the paper trail around each purchase matters, including where the cards came from, what was paid, and what the buyer was told.
If you were the one who lost money
This article is mostly about defending charges, but the same law protects cardholders. The FTC’s advice is practical: keep a copy of the card and the store receipt, ideally a photo of both, because the card number and receipt are what you need to report fraud to the gift card company and ask for your money back. If someone asked you to pay a bill, a fine, or a “government” debt with gift cards, the FTC is blunt that no real business or government agency will ever tell you to pay that way. Reporting quickly gives the issuer the best chance to freeze a balance before it is spent.
Penalties: 1 to 10 Years and Fines
Subsection (f) is one sentence. Anyone convicted under subsection (b), (c), (d), or (e) “shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years and a fine not to exceed $5,000.00.” That makes every HB 447 conviction a felony.
No value tiers
Most Georgia property crimes scale with value. HB 447 does not. The definition of “value” in subsection (a) is broad, but the penalty in subsection (f) does not refer to it. A single tampered card in a Buckhead pharmacy and a stack of drained cards worth thousands carry the same statutory range. Value still matters in practice, in plea discussions, in restitution, and in where a judge lands within the range, but it does not change the grade.
How HB 447 compares with other charges
Charge | Statute | Penalty |
Gift card theft, forgery, or fraud | O.C.G.A. 16-9-64 | 1 to 10 years and a fine up to $5,000 |
Theft (by taking, deception, receiving) | O.C.G.A. 16-8-12 | Misdemeanor up to $1,500; felony tiers above that, up to 20 years over $24,999.99 |
Shoplifting | O.C.G.A. 16-8-14 | Misdemeanor at $500 or less; 1 to 10 years over $500 |
Financial transaction card fraud | O.C.G.A. 16-9-33 and 16-9-38 | Up to $1,000 or 1 to 2 years at $100 or less in six months; felony, up to $5,000 or 1 to 3 years above $100 |
Forgery in the second degree | O.C.G.A. 16-9-2 | 1 to 5 years |
The comparison shows why the new statute matters. Conduct that used to fit a misdemeanor theft or shoplifting charge, or a financial transaction card fraud charge with a three-year maximum, can now carry up to ten years.
Federal exposure
Gift card fraud schemes that run through phone calls, texts, or the internet across state lines can also be charged federally. The federal wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. 1343, punishes a scheme to obtain money or property by false pretenses using interstate wire communications with up to 20 years.
First offender and timing
A person with no prior felony conviction may be eligible for sentencing under Georgia’s First Offender Act, O.C.G.A. 42-8-60, which allows a sentence without an adjudication of guilt and a discharge without a conviction on successful completion. Our article on Georgia’s First Offender Act explains who qualifies. As for timing, felony prosecutions other than the specially listed ones must begin within four years under O.C.G.A. 17-3-1.
Retail Employee and Reseller Cases
Many gift card cases are not about strangers at the rack. They involve people with lawful access: cashiers, store managers, warehouse and distribution staff, and people who resell cards online.
Cashiers and store staff
The new statute fits several employee scenarios. A cashier who activates cards without collecting payment, or who keeps redemption information from cards sold to customers, may be charged with gift card theft under subsection (b), because the cards or information were acquired without the seller’s consent. An employee who opens packaging or alters cards in the back room can be charged with gift card forgery under subsection (c). Return and exchange schemes involving gift cards can overlap with refund fraud and theft by deception.
When a case starts as an internal investigation, a loss prevention team or a corporate investigator may review register data, activation logs, and video, and then interview the employee before police are called. What an employee says in that interview can become the State’s key evidence on intent, so it is worth speaking with a lawyer before answering questions about missing cards or unusual activations.
Resellers and marketplace sellers
People who buy and resell gift cards face a different risk. The State does not have to prove they stole anything. Under subsection (b), knowingly retaining a card obtained without the cardholder’s, issuer’s, or seller’s consent, with intent to defraud, is enough. Under subsection (e), using such a card to obtain money can be enough. And under 16-8-7, buying cards you should have known were stolen is theft by receiving.