18 USC 1029 Credit Card Fraud: What Federal Prosecutors Dont Want You to Know

At Spodek Law Group, we believe everyone deserves to understand what they are actually facing. Not the sanitized version. Not the version designed to scare you into a quick plea. The real version. The version that federal defense attorneys discuss among themselves but rarely explain to clients in plain language.

If you are reading this at 2am because you just got a call from a federal agent, or because someone you know was arrested for credit card fraud, or because you found a target letter in your mailbox, then this article is for you. We are going to explain what 18 USC 1029 actually means, why it is far more dangerous than you think, and what your real options are.

Here is the truth that most law firm websites will not tell you: federal credit card fraud is not about the credit cards. It is about something called "access devices." And that distinction changes everything about how your case will be prosecuted and how you should defend yourself.

What 18 USC 1029 Actually Means (And Why Most People Get It Wrong)

Access devices. Thats what the statute says. Not credit cards. Not fraud. Access devices.

OK so heres the thing most people miss - the federal government dosent care about credit cards specifically. They care about any device, code, number, or method that can be used to access money, goods, or services. The statute was written this way on purpose. It gives prosecutors incredible latitude to bring charges in situations you would never expect.

Read that again. Access devices.

Most people hear "credit card fraud" and think about someone using a stolen Visa at the mall. Thats not what this statute is about. Its about the entire system of financial access. And once you understand that, you start to see why the penalties are so harsh and why the prosecutors have so much power.

The definition includes credit cards, sure. But it also includes:

• Debit cards
• Account numbers
• PINs
• Passwords
• Electronic serial numbers
• Mobile identification numbers
• Telecommunications service equipment

Basicly anything that can unlock money or services. Thats not what you thought, is it.

This matters because the government designed this statute to be expansive. They wanted jurisdiction over anything involving financial data. Banks lobbied hard for federal muscle behind their losses because state courts were not providing the deterrence they wanted. Congress delivered exactly what the banking industry asked for.

When you understand this, you understand why your situation is more serious then you probably realized. You are not just facing "credit card fraud" charges. You are facing a federal statute designed to sweep up everyone who touches stolen financial data.

The 15-Device Threshold Nobody Tells You About

Fifteen. Thats the number that changes everything.

Under 18 USC 1029(a)(3), possessing fifteen or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices is a federal felony. Let that sink in for a second. Fifteen devices. Not fifteen transactions. Not fifteen thousand dollars. Fifteen devices.

You probly assumed that penalties scale with how much money you stole. That would make sense, right? Steal five hundred dollars, face proportional consequences. Steal fifty thousand, face bigger consequences. The punishment should fit the crime.

Thats not how this works. Not even close. The federal government does not measure credit card fraud by dollar amount. They measure it by device count.

The threshold is fifteen devices. A text file with fifteen stolen card numbers in it? That is already a federal felony with up to ten years exposure. You do not even have to use them. Possession alone crosses the line. The statute makes no distinction between having fifteen cards and actualy commiting fraud with them.

Heres were it gets really wierd. An expired card counts as an access device. A card that was never activated counts. A card number that dosent even work anymore - still counts. The device dosent have to function. It just has to exist. Federal courts have ruled on this repeatedley.

Think about that. Someone could email you a list of twenty card numbers. Even if you never did anything with them, even if you deleted the email an hour later, you just commited a federal felony. The statute was designed this way. It is not an accident. It is a feature that gives prosecutors maximum leverage.

And the penalties escalate:

• First offense under basic provisions: up to 10 years
• Aggravating factors (manufacturing equipment, trafficking): up to 15 years
• Second offense: up to 20 years

These arnt theoretical maximums. Federal judges impose sentences within these ranges every single day.

Access Devices Include Way More Than Credit Cards

EBT cards count. Gift cards count. Even expired cards count.

Heres were people really dont understand how broad this statute actualy is. An "access device" under 18 USC 1029 is defined so expansivly that it catches things most people would never imagine as being federaly regulated.

A PIN code on a Post-it note? Access device. The account number from someones bank statement? Access device. The password to an online payment service? Access device. A SIM card with a stolen phone number? Access device. The login credentials for a cryptocurrency wallet? Access device.

The prosecutors arnt just looking for physical cards. They are looking for any piece of information that can unlock financial access. And in todays digital world, that information is everywhere. It is in emails. It is in text messages. It is in cloud storage accounts. It is in notes apps on phones.

WARNING: If you have ever received, stored, or forwarded financial data that wasnt yours, you may already be exposed to federal charges under 18 USC 1029.

This is why so many people get caught off guard. They think they are just holding onto some numbers for a friend. They think they are helping out with a side business. They think it is not a big deal because they never actualy used anything themselves. But possession of fifteen devices - including just the numbers, not physical cards - is already a federal crime carrying massive potential sentences.

The Secret Service and the FBI have made access device fraud a priority. They are running multi-district operations that sweep up dozens of defendants at a time. They are using data analysis to connect people who thought they were operating independantly. The net is wider then you imagined. And federal prosecutors know exactly how to use it to build conspiracy cases.

When the Feds Make an Example: What 27 Years Looks Like

Roman Seleznev. Remember that name.

In 2017, this Russian hacker was sentenced to twenty-seven years in federal prison. Thats not a typo. Twenty-seven years. It was the longest sentence ever imposed for a computer hacking and access device fraud case in the United States. The judge specifically said the sentence was meant to send a message.

Seleznev hacked into point-of-sale systems at over 500 American businesses. He stole millions of credit card numbers and sold them on dark web marketplaces to buyers around the world. The total damage? One hundred sixty-nine million dollars. Thats $169,000,000 in losses to businesses and financial institutions.

OK so you might be thinking - that is a mastermind. That is an international hacker with sophisticated tools. That is not me. I am just a small player who made some bad decisions.

Think about that for a moment though. The Broadway Grill was a Seattle restaurant that had absolutly nothing to do with Seleznev's crimes. They were just one of his victims. Their point-of-sale system got hacked. Their customers credit cards got stolen. They never knew it was happening until it was too late.

The Broadway Grill went bankrupt. They never stole anything. They never commited a crime. But the system destroyed them anyway. They were collateral damage in a federal prosecution.

Thats what federal prosecution looks like. It does not just punish the guilty. It creates collateral damage that ripples outward and destroys innocent people. The prosecutors wanted to "send a message" with Seleznev's sentence. They definately sent one. But that message dosent only apply to international hackers.

And heres the kicker - Seleznev's case shows what happens when the feds decide to make an example. But even "small" cases under 18 USC 1029 carry ten to fifteen year maximums. You do not have to be an international hacker to face years in federal prison. You just have to possess fifteen access devices. Thats the threshold. Thats all it takes.

Conspiracy Charges Mean Everyone Goes Down Together

Your co-defendants are about to become your biggest problem. This is something nobody explains until it is too late.

Federal conspiracy law is brutaly simple. If you agreed to participate in a scheme, and someone in that scheme commited crimes, you are liable for those crimes. Even if you never touched the skimmer. Even if you never met the person who stole the card numbers. Even if your only role was cashing out gift cards at Walmart. Even if you thought you were just doing a favor for a friend.

Heres the kicker that nobody explains - conspiracy charges mean the government only has to prove you knew about the scheme and agreed to participate in some way. They dont have to prove you commited every act. They dont have to prove you knew every detail. Your co-conspirators crimes become your responsibility for sentencing purposes.

Lets say you are part of a ring. You recieve encoded cards from somone. You use those cards to buy merchandise or withdraw cash. You give the merchandise or money to somone else who handles the next step. You get a cut for your trouble.

In your mind, you are just the "mule." You are just the person who walks into the store. You dont know were the cards come from. You dont know who the mastermind is. You dont know how the whole operation works. You just know your part.

It does not matter. Conspiracy charges mean you are legally responsable for the entire operation. Every card that got stolen. Every dollar that got spent. Every device that got manufactured. Every victim that got defrauded. Thats now YOUR criminal exposure.

CRITICAL: If you are being investigated alongside others, everything they did is potentialy on your record for sentencing purposes.

The feds love conspiracy charges becuase they create enormous leverage for plea negotiations. Suddently you are not facing charges for the three cards you personaly used - you are facing charges for the three hundred cards the ring manufactured. The federal sentencing guidelines calculate loss amount based on the TOTAL scheme, not just your individual piece.

This is how people who thought they were minor players end up facing decades in federal prison. The conspiracy law makes everyone in the chain responsable for the whole chain.

The Cooperation Trap That Catches Mules

Everyone thinks they are going to cooperate their way out. It is the first thing most defendants think about once they understand how much trouble they are in.

Look - prosecutors talk about cooperation like it is a golden ticket. Provide substantial assistance. Help us catch the bigger fish. Testify against the people above you in the organization. We'll recommend a reduced sentence. The judge will reward you for doing the right thing.

OK so lets be honest about something. Cooperation only works when you have something valuable to trade. And most people do not have anything.

Prosecutors want the people ABOVE you. Are you above anyone?

If you are the mule who cashed out cards at the store, who exactly can you give up? The person who handed you the cards? You probably do not know their real name. You probably met them through a friend of a friend. The person who recruited you? You probly met them once in a parking lot. The mastermind who set up the whole operation? You definately dont know them. You would not recognize them if they walked into the room.

The bottom of the chain has no fish. Thats you.

Meanwhile, the people at the TOP of the chain - the organizers, the hackers, the card manufacturers - they have plenty of people below them to trade. They can name dozens of mules. They can provide details about the whole operation. They have emails and text messages proving who did what. Their cooperation actually has value to prosecutors.

So what happens? The organizers cut deals. They get reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony. And the mules - the people who thought they were just making quick money, the people who had no idea how deep the operation went - they absorb the punishment. They become the examples that prosecutors use to justify their conviction statistics.

Todd Spodek has watched this play out in federal court more times then he can count. The people with the most information get the best deals. The people with the least information get crushed by the weight of conspiracy liability.

That is not a bug in the system. That is exactly how it is designed to work. The system squeezes the bottom until the top falls out. If you are at the bottom, you absorb the punishment.

Restitution Follows You After Prison Ends

You did the time. You are free. You are out of prison. Except you are not actualy free.

Heres were people really dont understand what they are facing. Federal restitution is a whole seperate punishment that starts AFTER you get out of prison. And unlike regular debt that you might be able to handle through bankruptcy or negotiation, federal restitution can not be discharged. Ever. It follows you for life.

When the judge sentences you, they are going to calculate restitution based on the total loss amount. In credit card fraud cases, that number can be absolutly massive. Tens of thousands of dollars. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sometimes millions of dollars. Remember those conspiracy charges? The loss calculation works the same way - you are liable for the entire schemes losses.

Restitution survives bankruptcy. Read that again. You can not discharge it.

If you do not pay voluntarily, the government has every tool available to collect:

• Wage garnishment
• Tax refund seizure
• Property liens

They can take money directly from your paycheck for the rest of your working life. They can intercept your tax refund every single year. They can put liens on any property you try to buy.

Your tax refund. Your wages. Your house. Your car. Your retirement account. All on the table.

And because credit card fraud often involves multiple victims across multiple states, the restitution amount isnt just what YOU personaly stole. It is what the SCHEME stole. Remember those conspiracy charges? They calculate loss the same way. You are liable for everyone elses damage too, even if you never saw most of that money.

Many people do not realize this until they are already sentenced. They think prison is the punishment. They serve their time, they get out, they start rebuilding their life. Then they discover that rebuilding is basicly impossible when half their paycheck goes to restitution for the next thirty years.

This is the consequence cascade that nobody talks about in their marketing materials. The punishment dosent end when you walk out of prison. It follows you permanantly. It affects your ability to get housing. It affects your ability to get jobs. It destroys your credit. It makes normal life nearly impossible.

The Narrow Path Forward (And Why Most Attorneys Miss It)

There is a way through this. It is narrow, but it exists. And the difference between finding that path and missing it entirely often comes down to who is representing you.

The attorneys at Spodek Law Group have handled federal access device cases for years. We know what works and what dosent. More importantly, we know what most attorneys miss becuase they treat federal court like an unfamiliar extension of their state practice.

Federal court is different. Most attorneys do not know how different.

The defenses that matter in 18 USC 1029 cases are specific:

• Intent is critical - the government must prove you KNEW the devices were counterfeit or unauthorized AND that you intended to defraud
• If somone gave you cards and you genuinly didnt know they were stolen, thats a real defense
• If you thought you were participating in a legitimate business opportunity, thats a defense
• Lack of knowledge and lack of intent are completly valid arguments

Jurisdiction matters in federal court. Federal charges require that the fraud affected interstate commerce. In some cases, this element can be challenged if the activity was purely local.

But sentencing mitigation is where many federal cases are actualy won. Even if conviction seems likely becuase the evidence is strong, reducing the guideline calculation can mean the difference between years in prison and months:

• Role reduction for minimal participants
• Challenging loss amount calculations
• Arguing against sentencing enhancements for leadership roles or sophisticated means

Most attorneys treat federal cases like state cases with bigger numbers. They are completly wrong. Federal sentencing guidelines are a completly different system then what state courts use. The calculations are technical and specific. The objections require understanding of commission policy statements. The opportunities for reduction are there - but only if your attorney knows were to find them and how to argue them effectivly.

If you are facing charges under 18 USC 1029, you need someone who understands federal court. Not someone who will tell you to plead guilty on day one becuase they dont know how to fight. Not someone who dosent know how to calculate your guideline range. Not someone who has never argued a sentencing memorandum in front of a federal judge. Someone who will actualy fight for every possible reduction.

Call Spodek Law Group now at 212-300-5196. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now. Todd Spodek and the team have handled cases just like yours. The earlier we get involved, the more options you have. Every day you wait, evidence accumulates, co-defendants start cooperating against you, and your leverage shrinks. Time is not on your side.

We do not promise miracles. What we promise is a real fight. A thorough understanding of what your facing. And the best possible outcome given your circumstances.

Thats what federal defense is suppose to look like.