What an happen if I lied on credit application?
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What an happen if I lied on credit application?
I applied for a visa card online with A credit union that is located in another state using my real information such as name, SSN, D.O.B. and address. I was asked on the application about my employer and annual income. I wasn’t being truthful in this area and I know many people that aren’t truthful when asked these same questions, however now I got a call from their security fraud department stating that I lied because they contacted the employer that I listed and they confirmed that I do not work there. Accordingly, they are going to be contacting my local police department. I would like to know if this is accurate and are they able to just contact my local police department for something this silly? It’s not like they gave me a card or I used someone else’s information I wasn’t even approved Can someone help?
Asked on August 3, 2016 under Criminal Law, New Jersey
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
It's not silly: credit card fraud is a crime, even if they catch the fraud before issuing it and so you never actually charge anything--the fraud is in attempting to get access to someone else's money (i.e. the credit on the card) under false pretenses or by lying. It does not matter if you did not know that it was a crime per se--any reasonable person would know it it was wrong to lie on such an application and, since it's obvious it was a wrongful act, you can be held liable. (Generally, "ignorance of the law" is not a defense to a criminal act; the only times it *might* be is if the "crime" is not an inherently wrongful thing but is just a technical violation, like parking in a no parking zone which was not properly marked.) So you can face charges and criminal penalties over this.
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