Pen. Code, § 530.5 · Chapter 8. False Personation and Cheats
Pen. Code, § 530.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Every person who willfully obtains personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 530.55, of another person, and uses that information for any unlawful purpose, including to obtain, or attempt to obtain, credit, goods, services, real property, or medical information without the consent of that person, is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.
(b) In any case in which a person willfully obtains personal identifying information of another person, uses that information to commit a crime in addition to a violation of subdivision (a), and is convicted of that crime, the court records shall reflect that the person whose identity was falsely used to commit the crime did not commit the crime.
(c) (1) Every person who, with the intent to defraud, acquires or retains possession of the personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 530.55, of another person is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment.
(2) Every person who, with the intent to defraud, acquires or retains possession of the personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 530.55, of another person, and who has previously been convicted of a violation of this section, upon conviction therefor shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.
(3) Every person who, with the intent to defraud, acquires or retains possession of the personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 530.55, of 10 or more other persons is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.
(d) (1) Every person who, with the intent to defraud, sells, transfers, or conveys the personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 530.55, of another person is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.
(2) Every person who, with actual knowledge that the personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 530.55, of a specific person will be used to commit a violation of subdivision (a), sells, transfers, or conveys that same personal identifying information is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by both a fine and imprisonment.
(e) Every person who commits mail theft, as defined in Section 1708 of Title 18 of the United States Code, is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment. Prosecution under this subdivision shall not limit or preclude prosecution under any other provision of law, including, but not limited to, subdivisions (a) to (c), inclusive, of this section.
(f) An interactive computer service or access software provider, as defined in subsection (f) of Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code, shall not be liable under this section unless the service or provider acquires, transfers, sells, conveys, or retains possession of personal information with the intent to defraud.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 383. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=530.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 f934c17467d3a5b4329fefbdd01995a88463f2ce1f67d32a58eb4aa659a87b07
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Penal Code
Cited by 31 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 530.5. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Civil Code
- Civ. Code, § 1748.95Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1785.11.2Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1785.11.11Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1785.12Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1785.15.3Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1785.16Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1788.18Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1788.61Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1798.92Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1798.93Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1798.201Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
- Civ. Code, § 1798.203Printed as Section 530.5 of the Penal Code
Financial Code
Government Code
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 182Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 186.2Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 368Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 473Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 502.01Printed as Section 502.7, 502.8, 529, 529a, 530.5 | Section 502.7, 502.8, 529, 529a, 530.5, 537e, 593d, 593e, 646.9 | Section 502.7, 502.8, 529, 529a, or 530.5, 537e, 593d, 593e, 646.9
- Pen. Code, § 530.6Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 666.1Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 803.5Printed as Section 115 or 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 1202.4Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 1524Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 13012.6Printed as Section 530.5
- Pen. Code, § 13519Printed as Section 530.5
Welfare and Institutions Code
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