Business Identity Theft

The theft and fraudulent use of a business's identifying information, such as its tax identification number, corporate registration details or officer records, to open lines of credit, obtain a loan, make purchases on the business's credit, or file a fraudulent tax return in its name, distinguished from ordinary identity theft, which targets an individual person's identity, by the scale of loss and by the distinct filing and registry systems, such as a state's corporate registration office, that offenders exploit to alter an existing business's official records. Documented methods include altering a company's registered address or listed officers with a state filing office so mail and notices are redirected to the offender, and several U.S. state government offices now publish specific guidance for businesses on monitoring their own registration filings for this reason, since the fraud is often not discovered until a lender or vendor contacts the business about an account it never opened.