Oklahoma state resources for personal identity theft protection

Note: These resources are specifically designed to address personal identity theft prevention and incidents of consumer identity theft. Because most state and federal identity theft and consumer protection laws are designed to protect individual consumers, businesses generally do not enjoy the same rights, protections, and potential recourse as consumers. Therefore, while helpful in addressing many issues that you may face as an individual, be aware that consumer identity theft information may not be applicable to an incident of business identity theft or fraud.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation - Identity theft guide  (for personal protection)

Oklahoma Identity Theft Passport Program
Oklahoma Identity Theft Passport Program website

Learn how to protect your personal credit

Business identity thieves often use the identity information (and credit) of the business owner or company officers to open new accounts, or as guarantors of fraudulent loans and lines of credit. In addition to taking actions to protect your business, it is also important to protect yourself as well. This section provides detailed explanations of important consumer credit protection tools that are available to help protect your personal credit from identity thieves.

Use the links below to learn what these tools are, how they work, and how to use them to help protect your personal credit.

Tools & Resources to Protect Your Personal Credit:

Review, Manage, and Protect Your Oklahoma Business Filings

If your business does not regularly review your state business filings, file your annual reports in a timely manner, or enroll in email alerts or other preventative systems that may be offered by your state, you may unknowingly attract the unwanted attention of business identity thieves.

• Review your Oklahoma business filings online
  Verify the accuracy of your state business filings and confirm that your filings are up to date

Businesses currently have the ability to check their business filings online, but the Oklahoma Secretary of State is also currently updating forms to gather additional information from entities so that an automated message will be sent to the entity any time a filing is made with regard to that entity. The Office also maintains an open dialogue with the various law enforcement agencies so that if prevention measures are unsuccessful, early detection efforts will be in place.

Review and Protect Your Business Credit Reports

Business identity thieves can manipulate or falsify business credit records and then use these to impersonate your business, or as a part of a fraud scheme to target your business. To combat this, you should periodically review your business credit reports and the information that is being reported.

Contact the business credit reporting agencies:

Report and Correct Fraudulent Oklahoma Business Filings

In Oklahoma, if your state business records have been fraudulently changed or updated, contact the Oklahoma Secretary of State Business Filing Department to report and correct fraudulent business filings. Contact information is provided below.

Please note that you should only contact the Oklahoma Secretary of State Business Filing Department for business identity theft incidents involving fraudulent business records. For such incidents, the Department may also report or escalate to law enforcement as appropriate. Business entities simply need to contact our Department to make us aware of the issues, and we will work with them to get the information to the appropriate law enforcement entities. We maintain a close working relationship with the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. We also have contacts within the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the Oklahoma City Economic and Identity Crime Task Force and the Secret Service. The Oklahoma Secretary of State's Office does not have investigatory authority, but utilizes these resources when the need arises.

All other types of business identity theft incidents and related fraud should be reported directly to law enforcement. Also review the Business Identity Theft Victim Action List for other important steps to take.

Oklahoma Credit Security Freeze

Oklahoma enacted its own state law establishing the availability of credit security freezes for its citizens. The three major credit bureaus  (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) have also voluntarily made security freezes available to all Oklahoma state citizens. Innovis voluntarily allows consumers in all states to freeze their Innovis credit files.

Eligibility: All consumers 

Credit Security Freeze Fees:  Per credit bureau. To be effective, you should place a freeze at each credit bureau
• No cost for confirmed identity theft victims to place a freeze (with a copy of police report), or for seniors age 65 and older
• All others must pay $10.00 to place a freeze, to temporarily lift the freeze, or to remove it entirely
• The freeze will remain in place until you remove it

To Place a Credit Security Freeze in Oklahoma:

• Experian security freeze website  

• Equifax security freeze website  

• TransUnion security freeze website  

• Innovis security freeze website  
 

Report Business Identity Theft to Oklahoma Law Enforcement

In Oklahoma, if your business is a victim of business identity theft, you should report the crime to your local law enforcement agency. In some cases, you may also file a complaint with the Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General.

In the case of fraudulent business filings, the Oklahoma Secretary of State Business Filing Department may also report or escalate to law enforcement as appropriate.

Also review the Business Identity Theft Victim Action List for other important steps to take.

Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General

Oklahoma Attorney General website

File a complaint with the Oklahoma Attorney General

Oklahoma AG office numbers:    OKC: (405) 521-3921    |    Tulsa: (918) 581-2885

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI)

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation website