Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says a new state law is a good first step to address scammers using an actual Iowa address when filling out online forms to register the name of a fake business.
“What they’re doing to these poor homeowners is now setting them up for concern about what liabilities they have,” Pate said. “Does that mean the bill collectors will come knocking at their home to ask them what’s going on?”
Chris Coleman, president of the Iowa Better Business Bureau, said a group of neighbors in West Des Moines found out their addresses had been hijacked by a scammer. “It was mainly because the secretary of state sent them a letter saying, ‘Thanks for creating up a corporation in Iowa,’ and they were like: ‘I didn’t do that,’” Coleman said. “And then the secretary of state didn’t have tools to turn it off right away.”
The new state law gives the secretary of state’s office authority to investigate these kind of complaints and remove a business name from its records if the registered agent for the business does not respond to a certified letter within 21 days. Pate would like to go farther than just taking the fraudulent name off the state’s list of incorporated businesses. “I’m looking to other states for best practices that we can implement here so that we can not only stop them from doing it, but I’d like to make sure that we can prosecute some of these people. Lock them up,” Pate said, adding that’s difficult because many of the scammers are based in other countries.
The Better Business Bureau’s Coleman said many Iowans have been subjected to internet fraud. “We know that fake addresses have been used to sell high ticket items on the internet. It gives people a legitimacy,” Coleman said. “‘Here’s my address. I’m going to ship it from here to you.’”
The Federal Trade Commission estimates Iowans lost at least $52 million in 2024 to financial fraud.
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