Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold Launches Resource to Help Prevent Business Identity Theft

Denver, February 2, 2023 - A new tool allowing Coloradans to report fraudulent business filings is now available at www.ColoradoSOS.gov. The resource, which launched on February 1, protects Colorado businesses and individuals by allowing them to report when a bad actor has:

• formed a new business fraudulently using someone else’s address or personal information.
• taken over a legitimate business filing in an attempt to leverage it for fraud.

“As Secretary of State, I will always work to ensure Colorado remains a great place to own and operate a business. This new resource provides protections for hard-working Colorado business owners from the increasing threat of business identity theft, while cutting red tape,” said Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

When the Secretary of State’s office receives a complaint of a suspected fraudulent filing via this new tool, that complaint will be referred to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation. If the subsequent investigation determines the business filing to be fraudulent, the Secretary of State’s Office will then redact victim information and flag the record as suspected fraudulent activity.

“Fraudulent business filings with the state can cause significant harm and inconvenience to legitimate business owners, and these types of filings are often made in order to commit other fraud and crimes. My office is committed to working with the Secretary of State’s office to crack down on business identity theft using this new state law,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said.

This interagency process, established as a result of the Combating Business Identity Theft Act (SB22-034), aims to stem business identity theft in Colorado. Business identity theft is a crime in which, for example, thieves use a business’s identity to establish lines of credit with banks or retailers. With these lines of credit, the identity thieves often then buy items that can be exchanged for cash or sold with relative ease. The damage can be devastating to the victim business, with credit history damage or denial of credit leading to operational problems.  

The Combating Business Identity Theft Act passed the Colorado legislature with bipartisan support in 2022 prior to being signed by Governor Polis. The bill was sponsored by Senator Chris Kolker, Senator Kevin Priola, Representative Shannon Bird, and Representative Shane Sandridge.

“The collaborative efforts of the Legislature, Secretary of State and Attorney General's office has resulted in an important step in stopping bad actors from stealing the identities of Colorado businesses,” said Representative Bird. “We are keeping it easy to start a business in Colorado and at the same time making it very hard for fraudsters to steal identities and take advantage of the public.”

Businesses and individuals may file a formal complaint at https://coloradosos.gov/pubs/business/fraudFilingsComplaints.html.

A complaint should only be submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office if one of the following violations from section 7-90-314(1), C.R.S., has occurred:

• A new business was created using someone else’s personal information without their written consent, such as an address or name.
• An existing business record was changed without the written consent of the business owner or representative who has the authority to do so.

The filing of a complaint is not for settling internal disputes between former or current business partners, spouses, family members, friends/acquaintances, co-workers, competitors, etc.

In addition to this new tool, the Colorado Secretary of State, the Colorado Attorney General, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation ID Theft Unit provide a Business Identity Theft Resource Guide with the information necessary to avoid and reduce the threat of business identity theft while also assisting businesses that have already fallen victim to these crimes.