Houston Chronicle by Julian Gill 12/11/2019
A new state law designed to crack down on credit card skimming has begun to pay off for prosecutors.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office says a man allegedly caught last week with 78 fraudulent credit cards during a traffic stop is just the latest defendant charged locally under the law.
Ernesto Alvarez, 40, is among the first of 19 people in the county facing a charge of fraudulent use or possession of credit or debit card information, the DA’s Office said. In his case, the charge is a first-degree felony with a maximum punishment of life in prison.
At the time of his arrest Dec. 2, Alvarez remained on probation for a similar charge for which he pleaded guilty last year, court records show. In the previous case, he was caught with credit cards re-encoded with at least 10 other people’s financial information, authorities said.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Prosecutors-Recent-arrest-shows-teeth-in-new-14898718.php
