The latest provisions of article 196 of the criminal law

Article 196th of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates as follows:

1. Whoever commits credit card fraud under any of the following circumstances, if the amount is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan;

2. If the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan; If the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan or confiscated property:

(1) Use a forged credit card, or use a credit card fraudulently obtained with false identification;

(2) Using an invalid credit card;

(3) Fraudulent use of another person's credit card;

(4) malicious overdraft. The above-mentioned malicious overdraft refers to the behavior that the cardholder overdraws beyond the prescribed limit or time limit for the purpose of illegal possession, and refuses to return it after being urged by the issuing bank.

The crime of fraud is identified as follows:

1, the boundary between fraud and lending. For some reason, if the borrower fails to pay back for a long time, or fabricates a lie or conceals the truth to defraud money and materials, and cannot repay them at maturity, as long as there is no purpose of illegal possession, no profligacy, no breach of contract, no fraud or deception, and there is a definite intention to repay, it still belongs to a loan dispute and does not constitute a crime of fraud;

2. The boundary between the crime of fraud and the act of defaulting on payment on behalf of others. In the name of buying goods in short supply on behalf of others, taking the payment without buying anything, misappropriating the payment without authorization, defaulting on repayment, etc., we should focus on its real purpose, the relationship between the two parties, the cause of the incident, the specific behavior of the agent, the plot and consequences of breach of contract, and correctly judge whether it has the intention of illegal possession. If you can obviously want to buy it, but you still want to return it because you can't buy it for misappropriation, you can't be punished as fraud. Fraud in the name of purchase, defrauding a large amount of property, profligacy, no intention to return, and inability to return, should be punished as fraud;

3. The boundary between fraud and fund-raising enterprises concealing debts due to losses. If it is indeed a fund-raising enterprise, but because of poor management, loss of debt, going out to avoid debt, or property debt disputes. This is essentially different from fraudsters who abscond with money for the purpose of illegal possession in the name of raising funds to run enterprises.

To sum up, whether the sentence can be reduced, you can consult a lawyer to seek a solution. Lawyers can play different roles in different stages of criminal cases.

Legal basis:

Article 196 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC)

Under any of the following circumstances, it constitutes the crime of credit card fraud, and if the amount is relatively large, it shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan; If the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan; If the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan or confiscated property:

(a) using a forged credit card, or using a credit card fraudulently obtained with a false identity certificate;

(2) Using an invalid credit card;

(3) Fraudulent use of another person's credit card;

(4) malicious overdraft.

The term "malicious overdraft" as mentioned in the preceding paragraph refers to the behavior that the cardholder overdraws beyond the prescribed limit or time limit for the purpose of illegal possession, and refuses to return it after being urged by the issuing bank.

Whoever steals a credit card and uses it shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 264 of this Law.