Featured Post
Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!
(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...
Feb 2, 2012
Interesting Psak: Stolen Credit Cards
The recent cyber attacks, which began with the theft and publication of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers, raises an interesting question - if one were to find one of those credit card numbers that still worked, could one use it?
Now it seems obvious that it is not allowed. It is clearly theft, illegal and against halacha.
Abbed Taripi, a Saudi Arabian religious leader, has issued a fatwa - an interesting psak - this week, declaring that the use of stolen Israeli credit cards is permissible. Taripi's rationale, as reported by financiall newspaper Calcalist, is that these cards were not issued neither by an "Islamic bank" nor in Muslim countrys.
According to this "psak", the Arabs would be allowed to use pretty much any stolen credit card issued in any of the western countries, and not just Israeli cards.
Now it seems obvious that it is not allowed. It is clearly theft, illegal and against halacha.
Abbed Taripi, a Saudi Arabian religious leader, has issued a fatwa - an interesting psak - this week, declaring that the use of stolen Israeli credit cards is permissible. Taripi's rationale, as reported by financiall newspaper Calcalist, is that these cards were not issued neither by an "Islamic bank" nor in Muslim countrys.
According to this "psak", the Arabs would be allowed to use pretty much any stolen credit card issued in any of the western countries, and not just Israeli cards.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts
I could see this psak being given by a Charedi rabbi as well. Since you don't have to return a lost object to a non-Jew.
ReplyDelete1. there is a difference between stealing and not returning a lost object. stealing money by using someone's credit card has nothign to do with returnign a lost object. theoretically, if one found a credit card (even on th internet I imagine) one might not have to return it. but using it would be stealing. That is not like finding a non-Jew's pen or laptop that he could keep and use.
ReplyDelete2. there is no hashavas aveida to a non-Jew, but that is only if it will not cause a chilul hashem. In the situation in which it gets highly publicized, like the theft of thousands of credit cards and their publication on the internet, I imagine that make use of it would become publicized as well and would cause a chilul hashem. That would change the halacha in this case as well.
"there is no hashavas aveida to a non-Jew, but that is only if it will not cause a chilul hashem."
ReplyDeleteEven more than that, if it is possible to cause a Kiddush Hashem by returning an aveda to a non-Jew, that is also the proper thing to do (even if there would be no chillul Hashem by not returning it.)
Rafi, I agree with your 2 points. But I don't think that would stop the crooks that happen to study in Yeshivas to pasken differently.
ReplyDeleteAs for point 1, though I'm not so sure that a credit card number is different than finding a large pile of counterfeit cash in the street.
who says that according to halacha you can spend counterfeit money? that seems to me to be stealing.
ReplyDeleteThe same people who say you don't have to pay taxes, are the same people who say you can use counterfeit or illegally gained money.
ReplyDelete