Business Identity Theft (or corporate or commercial identity theft) occurs when a business’s identity is used by an unsolicited third party to commit fraud or other crimes. If your business becomes a victim of identity theft, you may have to face the financial and legal burdens of defending your business reputation, trademarks, copyrights, or patents in court.

The best way to prevent business identity theft and cybersecurity fraud is to take action to keep your important information secure. Below are a few tips:

• Regularly check your business’s credit report for unusual activity.
• Keep up to date with the latest online security risks.
• Protect your network and computers with endpoint protection and a firewall.
• Sign up for electronic notifications from your bank, creditors, and service providers to stay up to date with any changes in your account.
• Protect your EIN, account numbers, and other personal information as best as possible.
• Create a policy for carrying, using, and reporting a lost or stolen company credit card.
• Do not share sensitive information over email or any web-based service.

When a document is filed with the Office of the Iowa Secretary of State through our Fast Track Filing system or by paper, our office will send an email or a physical postcard to the entity's registered agent for each filing. If you have received a postcard from our office at your address, that means your name and/or address were listed on our records as the registered agent of the entity listed. If you have not applied to file a business, you can file an Affidavit of Unauthorized Use with our office, and we will assess the situation. If we determine that your information was used fraudulently, we will remove the information from public view. You can email this notarized affidavit to fraud@sos.iowa.gov, and we will reach out if we need any further clarification.

If you believe some other kind of fraud is occurring, please speak with your legal counsel to determine how to proceed.

It is important to know the signs of fraud, whether you are a business owner or a consumer. One way you can protect yourself is keeping an eye out for these signs when you receive a phone call, email, or text from someone you don’t know:

• Is there a sense of urgency with this request? Is there threatening language?
• Is a government agency or a bank asking me to send them money?
• Are they offering a gift or prize that seems too good to be true?
• Does the contact information on the request match up with the company or other materials?

Never share your information with anyone you don’t recognize. If something seems strange about the communication you received, end the conversation immediately.

America’s SBDC Iowa is a great resource for this! They provide business security tips and other useful information for small businesses! You can visit their website at https://iowasbdc.org/cybersecurity/, or you can access their Cyber Workbook by clicking here.