Section 269/2: Making or possessing tools for forging an electronic card
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดทำเครื่องมือหรือวัตถุสำหรับปลอมหรือแปลง หรือสำหรับให้ได้ข้อมูลในการปลอมหรือแปลงสิ่งใด ๆ ซึ่งระบุไว้ในมาตรา ๒๖๙/๑ หรือมีเครื่องมือหรือวัตถุเช่นว่านั้น เพื่อใช้หรือให้ได้ข้อมูลในการปลอมหรือแปลง ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่หนึ่งปีถึงห้าปี และปรับตั้งแต่สองหมื่นบาทถึงหนึ่งแสนบาท
English translation
Whoever makes a tool or object for forging or altering, or for obtaining data used in forging or altering, anything specified in Section 269/1, or possesses such a tool or object in order to use it or to obtain data used in forging or altering, shall be liable to imprisonment from one year to five years and a fine from twenty thousand baht to one hundred thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 269/2 is a preparatory offence: it reaches back from the forgery itself to the means of committing it. Two forms of conduct are covered, making such a tool or object, and possessing one, and two purposes, forging or altering anything specified in Section 269/1, and obtaining the data used in forging or altering. Nothing need have been forged yet, which is what allows police to intervene against a card fraud operation before any card is produced. In practice the subject matter is skimming heads fitted to ATMs and payment terminals, magnetic stripe encoders, blank card stock, and the captured track and PIN data itself, which falls within the words obtaining data. The penalty is identical to the completed forgery under Section 269/1, one to five years with a mandatory fine, which is unusual and reflects how central the equipment is to organised card fraud. Section 269/3 punishes bringing such tools into or out of the Kingdom, and Section 269/7 raises the penalty by one half where the conduct relates to a payment or cash withdrawal card.
Why this matters in practice
The practical significance is that possession is complete on proof of purpose, so a defendant found with encoding equipment and blank cards faces the same one to five year range as someone who actually produced forged cards. The contested issue at trial is almost always purpose rather than possession, because much of the equipment has legitimate uses in the payment industry. Anyone operating point of sale or card issuing equipment in Thailand should be able to document why it is held. Seizure of equipment normally triggers charges under this Section together with Section 269/1 and, where cards have been used, Section 269/4 and theft under Section 334.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 2490/2558 (2015)
Where an offender intends each forged card to be used separately, in a manner likely to cause damage to the cardholder or issuing bank, holding several forged cards for use constitutes several distinct offences, one per card.
The defendants were charged under Sections 269/1, 269/2, 269/4, and 269/7 for forged payment cards. Because each card was intended to be used separately, the conduct was held to be five counts of jointly possessing electronic cards for use.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 1517/2564 (2021)
Forging an electronic card under Section 269/2 supports conviction alongside document forgery and theft, because a payment card is treated as both an electronic card and a right document.
In a multi-count prosecution under Sections 264, 265, 266, 269/1, 269/2, 269/4, and 269/7 together with theft under Section 334, the defendant was convicted on several counts, with the payment card treated as both a right document and an electronic card.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 2 Supreme Court decisions (2015 to 2021)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 2490/2558 (2015)
- Decision 1517/2564 (2021)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
What is the penalty for forging a credit or ATM card?
Under Section 269/2, forging an electronic card carries imprisonment of one to five years, a fine of 20,000 to 100,000 baht, or both. If the forged card is a payment or cash-withdrawal card issued to a user, the heavier Section 269/3 applies.
Are multiple forged cards counted separately?
Yes. Where several forged cards are made or held with the intent that each be used separately, courts treat them as several distinct offences and impose cumulative punishment.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 269/2 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 269/2. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-2/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 269/2 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-2/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-2/"><p>Whoever makes a tool or object for forging or altering, or for obtaining data used in forging or altering, anything specified in Section 269/1, or possesses such a tool or object in order to use it or to obtain data used in forging or altering,…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 269/2 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-2/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.