The crime remains an event regardless of its form, type or method of implementation, which has a negative impact on members of the communities, whether they are individuals or groups. It may have the effect of shaking up the existence of societies, and all societies compete in reducing crime. Longing and passion are measured to visit any country according to rate of increase or decrease in the rate of crime. In all cases, the perpetrator remains a man who has lost his conscience, and neglects to think and manage in a moment when his instincts are controlled by the devil, and lost the mind and the wisdom of acting. This was commonplace in earlier times, but the crime is now easier to commit and more complex to detect and the perpetrator of the crime has become a person with skill and intelligence and having the ability to deal with the innovations of science. The entry of new technologies in the field of communications and information technology and the Internet has contributed to the creation of new patterns of crimes that humanity has not previously committed. These types of crimes are complex in the ways they are committed, the means of detection, and they are of a transnational nature to the international horizons, and thus constitute a grave threat to the entire world. There are also crimes, which may not be subject to the laws in their legal adaptation because of their nature, which distinguish them from other crimes. Among the most important crimes that the legislator is now taking careful consideration to try to find criminal protection methods is the credit card because the phenomenon of using people to credit card stealth without the knowledge of its owner has recently emerged. The jurists are confused to determine the type of conduct of those who had surreptitiously seized the credit card, and is his act a theft or a fraud or an embezzlement, as each one adopts the opinion of his right, but on the other side find those who find the arguments and justifications of the legal challenge this view. Since credit card has emerged in our daily life and has become a distinctive character in our dealings, thus, commercial and civil law, and banking instructions have developed rules and foundations governing specifications and methods of obtaining and dealing with them. However, this is not enough, as long as there are penal limitations in the provisions of the Penal Code to protect the wrong handling of this card, and so far, this legislative shortcoming exists in most legislations which makes us in front of a legislative vacuum and a refuge for some of those who are not punished and this vacuum must be urgently remedied. There is no value to a right without protection that guarantees its safety and welfare. Since the 1980s, the world witnessed a series of rapid and successive economic transformations that affected all aspects of life from social, cultural and economic. This period witnessed economic transformations aimed primarily at encouraging investment and attracting capital, which has made countries accelerate the preparation of laws that keep pace with this development as well as laws governing banking operations. Because the banking aspect is the basis for the optimal implementation of these laws, it represents the main resource on which different projects depend on to meet their financial needs. The greater the volume of economic activity, the greater the need for financial liquidity, and the source of this liquidity is the banking system through credit operations. Money, in all its forms, is the dominant means of dealing between individuals as well as societies. However, this method was fraught with danger because it was exposed to theft, loss, fraud, forgery. As well as with the development of banks in the methods of dealing with customers created a new way to meet more advanced paper money, that is credit card because of the ease of dealing through it, and is safer and guarantee of money that may be stolen and damaged and difficult to transfer large amounts In light of the huge transactions and also because of what may expose them to counterfeiting and forgery under the high technology currently in place. The credit card appears as a rectangular card made of a specific type of plastic bearing the name of the issuing institution, the logo of this institution, its name, holder’s name, account number and date of validity. The card is protected in a special way and has a PIN number known to its holder. This card allows the holder to withdraw a cash amount (specified or not specified maximum) from the electronic distribution devices for banknotes, or from a certain class of stores dealing with this card without having to meet the price in cash. The card is called a number of names but the most common name is credit card. This meaning is the most common among people, unlike the technical, legal and banking concept of the word. Because it is considered in banking transactions as, a banking instrument to fulfill the obligations widely accepted locally and internationally in individuals and merchants, and as an alternative to money to pay the values of goods and services provided to the cardholder for signing the receipt of the value of the obligation arising from the purchase. Provided that the recipient can collect the value from the issuing bank of the card (this process or settlement is called the electronic payment system implemented by the international sponsors of the card) According to the legal concept, a card is a contract whereby the issuer of the card undertakes to open a credit in a certain amount in favor of another person (the cardholder) through which he can fulfill his purchases with third parties. The bank undertakes to settle between him and others after a specific period of time. The parties to this contract shall consist of the first party (the bank), the issuer of the card, which is legally authorized to issue it and shall pay on behalf of its holder, the second party (the cardholder), the person for who the card  is issued in his name or authorized to use it, and a pledge to the bank to meet the value of the transactions resulting from the use of the card, and the third party (accepted party), is called in the banking custom, the merchant or the entity that enters into the contract with the bank, the issuer of the card, which is required to provide the service. The card is of multiple types, the first of which is the debit card or the direct or immediate debit. The issuing thereof requires that the holder open a current account at the bank where the holder deposits with the card issuer an amount equal to the maximum allowed to buy within its limits. This type represents fulfillment instrument only and does not include granting the customer any credit and this type is the most common in Arab banks. The second type is monthly debit card, monthly payment or forward entry. This type does not require the opening of an account. Rather, it is calculated monthly according to the maximum limit of the card. The payment will be within the period specified by the bank in the statement of account and ranges from 25 to 40 days. If the holder delay in repayment to the bank he shall incur interest monthly, and this card represents the type of fulfillment instrument and the credit instrument. The third type is the credit card loan or payment in installments as the payment is in installments periodic proportional to the income and then the rest of the loan is calculated interest on the balance and this card represents the type of fulfillment instrument and the credit instrument. These cards can also be classified according to the type of guarantee whether personal, partial or total, and this takes into account the specific reasons on which the card is based. The first type is cards issued with personal guarantee issued to the bank’s senior customers and VIPs. The second type is cards issued with a partial in kind guarantee. In other words, the customer is required to provide a guarantee in the form of a current or investment account that is held at the bank with a value less than the limit of the card. The third type is a card issued with a full in kind guarantee, which is agreed upon in issuing the right of the bank to reserve part of the cardholder’s accounts with the bank and a maximum limit of the card limit. This card features a range of specifications. Some of which are due to (their form) and some of them due to (content), and some of them due to the (insurance) controls of this card.

First: Formal specifications: – Made of polyvinyl material characterized by flexibility, transparency, formability and non – impact of weather factors. Second: – Material specifications: – Name of card holder and shall have face letters, validity period, signature, photo of cardholder and card number , Magnetic stripe (and contains all data of card holder), Third: – The insurance components: – the signature bar, the magnetic printing, the card verification code (invisible readable), the microscopic printing, the fluorescent inks, and the three-dimensional stereogram (forms that not seen by naked eye appear on the machine as the laser passes)

The applicant shall apply to the bank to be dealt with, and the following shall be fulfilled: 1- Complete the form of the application form for the card in the bank and shall be aware of the conditions stipulated therein. 2- The employee of the bank shall examine the application and determine the customer’s financial efficiency, income and social status. 3. In case of examination of the application, the customer will sign on the back of the card (some banks) or the card will be sent by mail.

There are many ways to use the credit card, which are five cases as follows:

ATM card purchases, cash withdrawals from ATMs, cash withdrawals from one of the Bank’s branches in the card membership, payment of the amount payable the customer at the petrol stations and shops, and the use of the card via the Internet.

All of the above is what is included in the commercial and banking laws as well as the instructions required by the banks.

Indeed, all these controls are accurate in determining the general framework for the use of the card, but these texts have overlooked the other side of the use of the card which is the wrong use of this card and what may result in a crime that is supposed to be punishable by legal texts. We know that the judge can not rule without a legal text that punishes the incident presented to him.

Also, if there is no legal text, how does the judge act, and we all know that punitive texts cannot be measured, which requires us to first indicate this deficiency by referring to the images of manipulating the card.

Then we review the images of this manipulation in light of the texts that punish the crime of theft, fraud, and seizure, and whether it is possible to apply these legal texts? So it becomes clear to us that the subjective and special nature of this card requires quick legislative intervention to counter what we will be deficient.

Let us first begin by reviewing the manipulated images. Where multiple images manipulating credit cards. Due to the nature of the process of fulfilling the electronic payment card and the fact that it is a multilateral international banking process, which encouraged a few of the forgery and forgery professionals to enter the credit card market for forgery and use in the fraud to banks through:

1. Some people exceed the limits allowed in the card, which is when issuing the card as the bank agrees with the customer that there is a maximum draw from this card, if the customer is committed to this limit is not a problem can be raised, but if the customer exceeds this limit, If this is considered to be the case, then there is a danger that may affect the bank’s money, if this is one of the many cases that may threaten the depositors’ money in danger, and in this case, where is the deterrent if the third party commits this act, which we find with the need of legislative text.
2. Non-compliance with repayment of liabilities resulting from the use of the card in the operations of withdrawal and purchase, how can adapt this matter also Is it a breach of contract? Or theft or fraud or the seizure of the bank’s money? which needs opinion of technicians.
3. Some collusion with the cardholder on the use of the card number in other countries and then the cardholder object to the indebtedness of this process on the grounds that he did not leave the country, and this situation occurs in practical reality a lot, in this case how can the bank refund Amwalh, Or whether the responsibility is the cardholder, the person who has withdrawn the amount, or both. Is this liability civil, criminal liability, and if criminal, where is the legal text upon which to be punished?
4. Misuse of some merchants to use the card payment during the resurrection of the sale, any resurrection using the card more than once without the knowledge of the client,

It is true that the client signs the purchase invoice, but the question of forging the signature may be easy to get out of this dilemma if we limit the problem in that.

5. All these forms of card manipulation, but the most important images of manipulation that occur from the parties to the relationship in credit card, which is the most serious is as follows:

First: – Manipulation images that occur from the client and are as follows: –

1 – Issuing a card based on false data or forged documents, because in this case, the bank is unable to claim the cardholder for not giving the correct evidence of his place or for lack of guarantees because all the data in the bank is false.

2. Exceeding the withdrawal limit in collusion with the bank employee or trader, then how can the bank prove such collusion.
3. Use expired card or have been canceled.

Second: – Pictures of collusion between the cardholder and the merchant: – This is done when the cardholder exhausted his monthly balance in the purchase of fake and the client gets himself a cash percentage of the value of the invoice and leave the rest of the amount to the merchant. The merchant then collects the purchase value from the bank.

Third: – Pictures of collusion between the bank employee and the client: –

1. Obtain a sound card with false data.

2 – Allow the customer to exceed the limit of the card in withdrawing.

3 – Allow the customer to withdraw the card ended.

However, the laws have not included any rules on determining the methods for protecting this card, the same which we will discuss herein. And we must point out, firstly, that the credit card has a special nature, and it is uneasy to apply the rules set forth in the law which the legislator has stated, previously, in the effective laws with regard to banking transactions . In order to prove the validity of what we stated in above, we will take, as an example, the current rules which deal with falsification and fraud, and we will attempt to apply these rules to find out that a lot of persons will avoid punishment. As we stated in above, this car has a very special nature and if we attempt the current legal rules that deal with the crimes of falsification, fraud, cheating and theft, we will give an opportunity to a lot of those manipulating in these cards to avoid punishment, as it is difficult to apply the current rules and it should allocate special laws to deal with this crimes may be resulted from misusing this card. We will start with the crime of falsification as an evidence to prove the difficulty of applying the current rules, as it is known that falsification of documents is changing the reality existed in any document by any method determined by the law (physical falsification or moral falsification) in a way may cause damage combined with the intent of using this falsified document for the purpose for which it has been made. Namely, the crime falsification shall be occurred if four items have been fulfilled which are:

• Existence of the document (a written paper in special conditions and in a specific form to express the thoughts and meanings issued by any person(s) upon seeing this document). The physical item (changing reality) and this change could be done by anyone of the ways determined by the law (inserting /imitating/ adding/ deleting/ placing signature), the damage, as well as the criminal intent or moral item (intentional crime which means that the criminal aimed to commit the crime along with his knowledge and intent to use this document). According to the above-mentioned items, we will attempt to determine the nature of the credit card by raising the following questions:

Could this card be falsified ?

Is the current legal rule applied on this card or not ?

To what extent the crime of falsification is applied on the crime of falsification ?

To answer these questions, it should determine whether the credit card is considered as a document or not ? because falsification occurred to documents only. If the document conditions are fulfilled in the credit card and it is possible to make similar models for this card, then the falsification shall be done completely, but if specific data or a part of the card is changed, this falsification shall be occurred partially.

Concerning the second item of the crime of falsification which is changing the reality by anyone of the methods set forth in the law and to what extent this item is applied on the credit card, we state that, if it is possible to make a credit card or imitate it or to place a falsified signature on it or deleting it or adding some letters or data to it, the second item shall be fulfilled in case anyone of the above-mentioned ways for falsification has been used in this card. In the matter of the third item in falsification which is the damage, there is no doubt that changing the reality of the credit card will cause damage to the owner of the card and the bank in addition to other financial and social damages to the higher interests of the state. In the matter of the last item of the crime of falsification, which is the moral item, actually, if the criminal intended to falsify the card and to use this card in order to make gain by using it, then this item of the crime shall be fulfilled.

Now, we will raise another question: if the person has exceeded the permitted balance for withdrawing from the credit card, then which crime committed by him ? as this case is different among jurists.

The first opinion has considered this crime as breach of trust, but I object to this opinion, as the crime of breach of trust requires that the handed amounts which the client has embezzled, should be given to him as a trust, the same which has not happened. The second opinion has considered exceeding the permitted balance by the client as a theft on the ground that the client has taken over money owned by the bank without its approval in contradiction with the agreement signed with the bank, which is not accepted by me, as the client has entered to ATM in a legal way which is programmed by the bank and he has obtained the money willingly but not by embezzlement. The third opinion, which is accepted by me, as it has considered this act as breach of the contractual obligation concluded between the bank and the client, and the bank should claim for the additional amounts withdrawn from it as per a civil case. And in this point we find out that there is a legislative failure which requires intervention to correct it. Concerning the position of the client who used a canceled card, in this matter we should differentiate between two cases. The first case: if the client is requested by the bank to return the bank in case he is a client has a knowledge about that, then he shall be deemed to have embezzled money for which he shall be punished for the crime of breach of trust. In the second case, if the client used the canceled card for payment, then the crime of fraud is proved against him in which he has used the tool of fraud which is the canceled card in addition to the criminal intent of the client who deluded the others contrary to reality for existence of a credit card which is not existed actually because of its cancelation.

In the third problem, if the card is lost from the bearer and used by the others, in this matter we should point out that it is difficult for any other person to know the card’s password, as possessing this card by any other person shall not enable him to withdraw. And if we supposed that this person knows this password and he could withdraw, then what is he solution for this problem. First of all, we couldn’t consider this act as a theft, as long as the person has entered the password and the ATM has permitted him to complete the transaction, in this case the money shall be given to him willingly. Also, the password couldn’t be deemed as a tool used in committing the theft, as the password shall be used for getting out the money, while the key is used by the thief for entering to the place. The most important issue that we couldn’t use deduction by analogy in criminalization according to legality of crimes and punishments, so we hope that the legislator shall interfere to bridge this legislative gap through legal rules allocated for protection of credit cards and these rules should be annexed to the penal law.

Actually, in all cases there is gross damage suffered by the owner of the card or the bank, which requires the owner of the card, if he has good faith in case of losing his card, to notify the bank and the competent authorities to avoid any illegal use for this card. As we stated in above, the types of illegal uses of the credit card are multiple which take different forms. As the legislator has not interfered until now through clear and specific legislative rules, this matter shall remain controversial among the jurists. However, the parties got damaged from this crime, which is usually the bank issuing this card or the client who is the owner of this card, should commence notifying the bank to suspend dealing in this card and to notify the police immediately after occurring this crime. And if the client lost his card, he should notify the bank and any other concerned entities  immediately to suspend using it.

However, this matter is confusing, as no punitive rules have indicated to protection of this card, which threatens existence of this card in case it has been used in illegal was by non-owner. As it is known, the methods of using this card are multiple, it could be used for purchasing through ATMs and cash withdrawal from ATMS or from any bank of the bank subscribed in membership of the card, or for paying the amounts payable by the client at petrol stations or shops, or to use the credit card via the internet. According to the foregoing, we find out that there are multiple ways for using the credit card as per the laws, the banking decisions and any instructions issued by banks. However, these rules has omitted the other side of using this card, which is the incorrect use and the crimes may be resulted from this use. It is supposed that there is a rule punishing for this use, so where is this rule. As we know, the judge couldn’t rule without a legal punitive rule for the incident submitted to him, and if this rule is not existed, so how the judge shall act. Also, all of us know that it is not allowed to use deduction by analogy in punitive rules. In order to know reality of the legal dilemma in front of us, it should clarify this failure, firstly, by stating types of manipulation in this card. After that, we will review these types of manipulation based on the punitive rules for the crime of thievery, fraud, swindling, cheating and to verify if it is possible to apply these rules or not. And if these rules are unable to deal with the crimes resulted from wrong use of the card, the matter shall require issuing other legal rules to criminalize this use. It is known that there are types of manipulation in credit cards appeared through a few number of persons who are professional in fraud and falsification in addition to other cases in which other persons have exceeded the limits decided for the card, so is this act considered as a civil violation or breach of the contract. Also, there are cases of non-compliance with the debt resulted from using the card in withdrawal and purchase operations, so how we could describe this matter legally, is it a breach of the contract or a theft or fraud or embezzlement of the bank’s moneys. Also, there are other types in which some persons collude with the card bearer for using the card number in another country, and then the card bearer shall object against the debt resulted from this operation under pretext that he has not left the country. And this case occurred on the ground frequently. In this case, how the bank may recover its moneys, and this claim shall be done in the place of withdrawal or in the place of issuing the card? and is the card bearer or the person who withdrew the money shall bear responsibility in this case or both of them? and is this responsibility is civil or criminal ?

If this responsibility is criminal, where is the legal rule punishing for such act?. In addition, some merchants have misused the credit card, by using it several times without the knowledge of the client. Also, other merchants may collude with the client for using an expired credit card, so who is the accused in this case is it the merchant or the client, and where is the legal rule in this regard. And in other cases, the client may issue a card based on a falsified statement or falsified documents. Upon discovering this case, the bank shall be unable to claim the card bearer because of impossibility to know his correct residence address or non-existence of guarantees, as all information existed with the bank is falsified. In addition, the card bearer may use all his monthly balance in making false purchasing transactions from which the client may obtain a cash percentage of the value of the invoice while he shall leave the remaining the amount to the merchant, after that the merchant shall collect the puarcshe value from the bank.

And I have done my best to find in the current rules regarding the crimes of falsification, fraud and theft anything related to the crimes stated in above to find out that there is failure in these rules with which the persons committing these crimes may avoid punishment if we apply these rules. In order to prove difficulty of applying the current rules, I shall review some crimes along with its items and shall apply these rules on the crimes related to the credit cards to reach out to a result if it is possible to apply the current rule? Or it should modify it? Or it should formulate another rule?

In the crime of falsification, as it is known that falsification of documents is changing the reality existed in any document by any method determined by the law  in a way may cause damage combined with the intent of using this falsified document for the purpose for which it has been made. Namely, the crime falsification shall be occurred if four items have been fulfilled which are:

• Existence of the document (a written paper in special conditions and in a specific form to express the thoughts and meanings issued by any person(s) upon seeing this document). The physical item (changing reality) and this change could be done by anyone of the ways determined by the law (inserting /imitating/ adding/ deleting/ placing signature), the damage, as well as the criminal intent (falsification is an intentional crime, namely, the criminal intends to commit this crime along with his knowledge and intent to use the falsified document). According to the above-mentioned items, we will attempt to determine the nature of the credit card and could it be falsified ? is it allowed to apply the current legal rule or not ? to which extent the crime of falsification is applied on the credit card ?

To answer these questions, it should determine whether the credit card is considered as a document or not ? because falsification occurred to documents only. As it is known, the credit card’s data is processed electronically and falsification of this electronic data is a very difficult matter performed by organized gangs. Also, all jurists and judges have agreed that this document should have symbolic indications seen in naked eye. So the credit card couldn’t be deemed as a document according to this definition. According to this nature of the credit card and as falsification is supposed to make changes in the sigs, and if the document conditions have been fulfilled in the card with possibility to make forms for this card like the actual one, then this falsification shall be done completely. But if specific data or a part of the card is changed, this falsification shall be occurred partially.

Concerning the second item of the crime of falsification which is changing the reality by anyone of the methods set forth in the law and to what extent this item is applied on the credit card, we state that, if it is possible to make a credit card or imitate it or to place a falsified signature on it or deleting it or adding some letters or data to it, the second item shall be fulfilled in case anyone of the above-mentioned ways for falsification has been used in this card. In the matter of the third item in falsification which is the damage, there is no doubt that changing the reality of the credit card will cause damage to the owner of the card and the bank in addition to other financial and social damages to the higher interests of the state. In the matter of the last item of the crime of falsification, which is the moral item, actually, if the criminal intended to falsify the card and to use this card in order to make gain by using it, then this item of the crime shall be fulfilled.

Now, we will raise another question: if the person has exceeded the permitted balance for withdrawing from the credit card, then which crime committed by him ? as this case is different among jurists.

The first opinion has considered this crime as breach of trust, but I object to this opinion, as the crime of breach of trust requires that the handed amounts which the client has embezzled, should be given to him as a trust, the same which has not happened. The second opinion has considered exceeding the permitted balance by the client as a theft on the ground that the client has taken over money owned by the bank without its approval in contradiction with the agreement signed with the bank, which is not accepted by me, as the client has entered to ATM in a legal way which is programmed by the bank and he has obtained the money willingly but not by embezzlement. The third opinion which has considered this act as breach of the contractual obligation concluded between the bank and the client, and the bank should claim for the additional amounts withdrawn from it as per a civil case. And in this point we find out that there is a legislative failure which requires intervention to correct it.

Now, we will deal with another problem relating to the position of the client who used a canceled card, in this matter we should differentiate between two cases. The first case: if the client is requested by the bank to return the bank in case he is a client has a knowledge about that, then he shall be deemed to have embezzled money for which he shall be punished for the crime of breach of trust. In the second case, if the client used the canceled card for payment, then the crime of fraud is proved against him in which he has used the tool of fraud which is the canceled card in addition to the criminal intent of the client who deluded the others contrary to reality for existence of a credit card which is not existed actually because of its cancelation.

In the third problem, if the card is lost from the bearer and used by the others, in this matter we should point out that it is difficult for any other person to know the card’s password, as possessing this card by any other person shall not enable him to withdraw. And if we supposed that this person knows this password and he could withdraw, then what is he solution for this problem. First of all, we couldn’t consider this act as a theft, as long as the person has entered the password and the ATM has permitted him to complete the transaction, in this case the money shall be given to him willingly. Also, the password couldn’t be deemed as a tool used in committing the theft, as the password shall be used for getting out the money, while the key is used by the thief for entering to the place. The most important issue that we couldn’t use deduction by analogy in criminalization according to legality of crimes and punishments, so we hope that the legislator shall interfere to bridge this legislative gap through legal rules allocated for protection of credit cards and these rules should be annexed to the penal law.

Actually, in all cases there is gross damage suffered by the owner of the card or the bank, which requires the owner of the card, if he has good faith in case of losing his card, to notify the bank and the competent authorities to avoid any illegal use for this card. As we stated in above, the types of illegal uses of the credit card are multiple which take different forms. As the legislator has not interfered until now through clear and specific legislative rules, this matter shall remain controversial among the jurists. However, I propose to enter the following articles in the penal law for protecting the credit cards:

The proposed rules for protection of credit cards criminally:

(Article 1): (whoever imitated or falsified or fabricated any credit card or any similar cards issued by banks and national or foreign financial institutions, which is accepted in the country, shall be punished with life imprisonment) 

(Article 2): (whoever possessed or used or attempted to use or accepted to pay by a credit card despite of his knowledge that this card is falsified or imitated or fabricated, shall be subject to temporary imprisonment)

(Article 3) (whoever falsified or imitated the clients’ signatures on sales notifications or added false mounts shall be subject to intensified imprisonment).

(Article 4) (whoever obtained or attempted to obtain a credit card by using falsified documents or data or obtained, unlawfully, credit cards’ data belong to the others for using these cards to obtain amounts or commodities or services, shall be subject to intensified imprisonment). 

(Article 5) (in all cases it shall be ruled for forfeiting the imitated or falsified cards in addition to the machines and equipment used in imitating and falsifying these cards and to return the embezzled amounts)

(Article 6) (any public officer or employee or worker at any bank or company issuing the cards who has taken over money unlawfully or facilitated that for the others by using credit cards or the like, shall be subject to intensified imprisonment).

(Article 7) (any public officer or employee or worker at any bank or company issuing the cards who has facilitated or assisted the others to obtain credit cards or the like despite of his knowledge about invalidity of the submitted data, shall be subject to temporary imprisonment with fine)

(Article 8) (it shall be imprisoned and fined whoever used unlawfully any valid credit card belongs to the others inside the country without any knowledge or permit from the owner. and in case using this card has brought to him financial gain, he shall be subject to life imprisonment and to return the amounts embezzled by him)

(Article 9) (it shall be subject to imprisonment for two years maximum or fine at ten thousand dirhams maximum, anyone who submitted false data or false information for obtaining or in attempt to obtain a credit card from any banks or companies entitled for issuing these cards).

(Article 10) (it shall be subject to imprisonment for one year minimum and fine ranging from two hundred and fifty thousand dirhams to one million dirhams or by one of these two punishments, anyone who has taken over for himself or for the others, unlawfully, any movable money or benefit or bond or signing this bond by resorting to any fraudulent method or by taking a false name or impersonating invalid capacity via the internet or any electronic systems or any information technology)

(Article 11) (it shall be subject to imprisonment and fine or by one of these two punishments, anyone who has obtained, unlawfully, by using the internet or any electronic systems, any number or data related to any credit card or electronic card or obtained any numbers or data related to banking accounts or by using any other method for electronic payment. The punishment of imprisonment shall not be less than six months and the fine shall not be less than one hundred thousand dirhams and not exceed three hundred thousand dirhams or by of these two punishments if he intended for using these numbers and data to obtain money belongs to the others or to make use of any services provided under this card. And if he used this card to take over, either for himself of the others, money belongs to others, he shall be subject to imprisonment for one year minimum and fine ranging from two hundred thousand dirhams to one million dirhams or by one of these two punishments. And it shall be subject to the same punishment set forth in the above-mentioned paragraph anyone that published or republished numbers or data of a credit or electronic card or any data for banking accounts belong to the others or by any other method for electronic payment.  

(Article 12) (it shall be imprisoned and fined no less than five hundred thousand dirhams and no more than two million dirhams or by one of these two punishments whoever falsified or imitated or copied any credit card or ID card or any other methods for electronic payment by using one of IT methods or informatics program, and it shall subject to the same punishment anyone who:

• Manufactured or designed any means of information or informatics program for the purpose of facilitating anyone of the acts stated in the first paragraph of this article.
• Used without a permit a credit or electronic card or ID card or any other methods for electronic payment for the purpose of obtaining, either for himself or the others, moneys or properties belong to the others or to make use of the services provided by the others.
• Accepted to deal by these falsified or imitated or copied cards or other methods for electronic payment despite of his knowledge illegality of these cards.

(Article 13) (it shall be imprisoned and fined no less than two hundred thousand dirhams and no more than five hundred thousand dirhams or by one of these two punishments whoever obtained, without a permit, any password or code or any other means to access to any IT means or website or electronic information system or information network or electronic data, and it shall be subject to the same punishment anyone that prepared or designed or produced or sold or purchased or imported or offered for sale or provided any informatics program or any IT means or promoted by any method website links or informatics programs or any other IT means designed for the purpose of committing or facilitating or urging to commit the crimes set forth in this decree by law.  

(Article 143) (it shall be exempted from punishment anyone who commenced notifying the judicial or administrative or banking authorities for anyone of the crimes stated in articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) and this notification has led to seize the crime or the criminal)

Finally, I have done my best to express an opinion on which we may agree or disagree. And each opinion may have its own estimation and its basis from the law and jurisprudence, but I don’t allege that my opinion is most perfect one, as our God who created the universe is only who could know everything.

And if wanted to submit a prefect opinion, I wouldn’t stop as this extent of exercising judgment in this matter, aimed all good from this and finally, I offer a prayer in praise of our Lord.

Dr. Ayman Abdullah Al Bayaa

Alwasl International Group Advocates and Legal consultants