TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Jan. 16, 2013 – In October 2012, Florida Realtors joined state leaders for a discussion on business identity theft, and the state recently issued a report of its findings.

Business identity theft can work the same way as personal identity theft. If criminals can get important business keywords, they can access tax records, bank accounts, suppliers and more.

“These criminals don’t put on ski masks and hold you up at gunpoint – they understand technology and are very smart,” says task force participant Trey Goldman, legislative counsel in Florida Realtors Public Policy department. “If they figure out a way to register themselves as a business officer with the state, they appear to be legitimate business owners or officers.”

Some Realtors in Florida had a brush with identify theft in October 2012, when the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) began getting complaints from association members about official-looking letters that said the receiver was facing disciplinary action. Whoever sent the letter copied the DBPR banner and created an e-mail signature that looked like the original.

“The task force floated a number of ideas and topics for further study, but participants agreed that it will take a multi-pronged approach to fight business identity theft,” says Goldman. “However, it also agreed to move forward on two important steps – education and stronger online security.”

Education is considered the most easily implemented step. If the public understands the problem, it can prepare to deal with it. “However, education by itself will not solve the problem,” the report says. “Even with a thorough knowledge of the crime and how it is perpetrated, education is at best a reactive solution.”

Online security measures will also be upgraded on the Florida Division of Corporations website, sunbiz.com, where Florida corporations can renew licenses and change data.

“Abuse of the Department of State’s Sunbiz database is at the core of Florida’s business identity theft issue,” the report says, and the “‘good faith filing’ nature of Florida’s Department of State makes abuse of this database easy.”

Because the department oversees the corporation database as a manager only, it cannot respond to abuse complaints “even when the abuse is validated as fraud by legal authorities. … Because of this constraint, the victim will continue to be abused, and banks or creditors will continue to assist in the process, and bleed capital themselves, simply because they have no visual indication that there is known fraud activity on a filing.”

“The task force will also consider a database that cross-checks names across departments and agencies,” says Goldman. “If an applicant submits an application to open a health care facility, for example, a cross-check system could discover that he has committed Medicare fraud and raise a red flag.”

© 2013 Florida Realtors®