Credit-card fraud protection advances

Credit-card fraud protection advances

Capitol Link

http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/10207leg.briefs.htmlTucson, Arizona Wednesday, 7 February 2001

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX - Credit-card users would get some protection from fraud under the terms of legislation approved yesterday by the House of Representatives.

HB 2134 specifies that credit- card receipts issued by merchants can show only the last five digits of the card used. The other numbers and the expiration date would have to be hidden.

Thieves can use credit-card numbers to order goods and services without the consent of the owner.

The measure applies only to credit-card transactions handled electronically. The bill, approved 48-9, now goes to the Senate.

* Arizonans won't be forced to cooperate with police.

Sen. Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, withdrew his bill from consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee after conceding there were problems with it. But Bowers said the question of the responsibility of citizens still needs to be addressed.

SB 1380 would have made it a crime to refuse to cooperate with a criminal investigation unless it would violate some other right, such as attorney-client privilege.

Bowers said his measure had nothing to do with a recent decision by Phoenix New Times magazine to publish an anonymous interview with an arsonist burning homes near the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.

He said it was based on a case in Mesa, in which a passenger in a truck that struck and killed a pedestrian refused to identify the driver.

* Motorists convicted of drunken driving would have their fines sharply increased under the terms of legislation approved unanimously yesterday by the House of Representatives.

HB 2182 sets the minimum fine at $500, twice the current $250 penalty. A second offense within five years would carry a $1,000 penalty, up from $750.

A first-time offender under extreme drunken driving - with a blood-alcohol reading of at least 0.18 percent - would face a $500 fine. A second offense would bring $1,000 fine.

The full House has yet to approve separate bills, one that would set the presumptive limit at 0.08 percent, down from 0.10 percent, for drunken driving and at 0.15 percent for extreme DUI.

* The House of Representatives gave final approval yesterday, on a 36-21 vote, to requiring that those chosen as presidential electors actually cast their votes for the person to whom they are pledged.