Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 45. CRIMES

CHAPTER 6. OFFENSES AGAINST PROPERTY

Part 3. Theft and Related Offenses

Aiding The Avoidance Of Telecommunications Charges

45-6-307. Aiding the avoidance of telecommunications charges. (1) A person commits the offense of aiding the avoidance of telecommunications charges when the person:

(a) publishes the number or code of an existing, canceled, revoked, expired, or nonexistent telephone credit card or the numbering or coding that is employed in the issuance of credit cards with the purpose that it will be used to avoid the payment of lawful telecommunications charges;

(b) publishes, advertises, sells, gives, or otherwise transfers to another plans or instructions for the making or assembling of any apparatus, instrument, equipment, or device described in 45-6-306(4) with the purpose that it will be used or with the knowledge or reason to believe that it will be used to avoid the payment of lawful telecommunications charges; or

(c) manufactures, assembles, possesses, sells, gives, or otherwise transfers any apparatus, instrument, equipment, or device described in 45-6-306(4) with the purpose that it will be used to avoid the payment of lawful telecommunications charges.

(2) A person convicted of the offense of aiding the avoidance of telecommunications charges shall be fined not to exceed $500 or be imprisoned in the county jail for a term not to exceed 6 months, or both.

(3) For the purposes of this section, the term "publish" means to communicate information to any one or more persons, either orally; in person; by computer, telephone, radio, or television; or in a writing of any kind, including but not limited to a letter, memorandum, circular, handbill, newspaper or magazine article, or book.

History: En. 94-6-304.2 by Sec. 2, Ch. 175, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 94-6-304.2; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 282, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 354, L. 1999.