When Someone Uses Your Name
S.C. Code 16-13-510 — financial identity fraud and identity fraud, a felony carrying up to ten years
Financial identity fraud is obtaining or recording another person's identifying information, or using it to get at their financial resources, without permission, intending to take those resources, to defraud, or to get money, property or services by false pretenses.
Identity fraud is using another person's identifying information to get a job, or to avoid being identified by police, a court, a jail or another government agency.
- Social security, driver's license and state ID numbers.
- Checking, savings, credit and debit card numbers and PINs.
- Electronic identification numbers, digital signatures and dates of birth.
- Names and addresses, when linked to other identifying information.
- Other numbers or passwords that open a person's financial resources.
Up to ten years. Either offense is a felony carrying a fine in the court's discretion or up to ten years, or both, and the court may order restitution to the victim. It may be prosecuted in the county where the victim lived when the information was taken, among others.
Those are among the kinds of identifying information the section names. A particular case is a question for the police and a licensed South Carolina attorney.
Sources for this section (1)
- S.C. Code 16-13-510 — Financial identity fraud or identity fraud; penalty
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed South Carolina attorney.