신용카드 부정사용에 관한 형사책임

Abstract

This thesis examines pertinent legal cases and theoretical issues with the focus on criminal liability of the wrongful use of a credit card, and aims to come up with reasonable solutions. First of all, to wrongfully obtain a credit card in one’s own name constitutes a fraud crime since acquisition of a status to purchase the goods in the credit card merchants or receipt of cash services by means of credit offer triggers not only the acquisition of property itself such as a credit card but also imposes risk of financial losses against the credit card company. Likewise, it can be said that an act of wrongfully obtaining a credit card with other’s name also constitutes a fraud crime. A precedent case in this area held that a wrongful acquisition of a credit card with one’s own name and its use for purchase of the goods, etc. constitute one comprehensive crime of fraud. Nonetheless, the presentment of a credit card in the forementioned case does not constitute a showing of an intention to make a payment, and since a credit card merchant gets paid by a credit card company regardless of a credit card holder’s intention or ability to make a payment, an act of defrauding does not exist, which results in the non-establishment of a fraud crime. Moreover, in case where a credit card with one’s own name is issued in the normal procedure at the outset, but later the credit card comes to be used wrongfully after the intention and ability to make a payment disappear, it imposes hardship to acknowledge a fraud crime due to lack of a defrauding act by wrongful use as well as due to difficulty in acknowledging a mistake on the part of a credit card merchant as revealed in the discussion of wrongful acquisition of a credit card with one’s own name and its wrongful use. In the case of a wrongful acquisition of a credit card with other’s name and its wrongful use, since an independent fraud crime can be established due to the use by an unauthorized person on top of a fraud crime established from a wrongful acquisition, the issuance of a credit card and its use should be separately examined. And, the case of a wrongful acquisition of credit card with other’s name and its use constitute a fraud crime with a credit card merchant as the defrauded party and a credit card company as the victim. Further, a wrongful use of a credit card with other’s name constitutes a crime of wrongful use of credit card as stipulated under the Specialized Credit Financial Business Act.