When Someone Uses Your Name
ORC 2913.49 — and why the police report is the document that matters
Identity fraud is its own offense in Ohio: using, obtaining or possessing another person's identifying information without consent, to hold it out as one's own or to represent it as belonging to somebody it does not. Knowing that it is a crime is less useful than knowing what the report of it unlocks.
Who handles this in Ohio: Ohio State Bar Association lawyer referral; and legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
The police report is a key rather than a formality. Under Ohio law a consumer reporting agency may not charge a victim of identity theft a fee for placing a security freeze, and the proof required is a valid copy of a police report documenting the complaint. So the report is not only how an offense gets investigated. It is the document that establishes the person as a victim to everybody else they now have to deal with.
A report goes to the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction, and where the fraud happened somewhere else entirely, a victim is encouraged to report it to the agency where they live. A department saying the crime happened in another county is describing where an investigation might sit rather than where a report may be made.
Two protections exist alongside the state ones, and they are free. The three nationwide credit reporting companies are required to place and lift a freeze at no charge, and a person is entitled to a free credit report from each of the three. Those are federal entitlements that sit alongside the Ohio provision rather than replacing it, and neither depends on anybody being caught.
The offense carries heavier treatment where the victim is an elderly person, a disabled adult, an active duty service member or the spouse of one, and the degree also rises with the value involved.
“Has a report been made, and is there a copy of it.”
Disputing an item on a credit report, the tax route where a return was filed in somebody's name, and what happens where an identity was used during an arrest each run through their own processes and are not on this page. The Ohio attorney general's office and the Federal Trade Commission both take identity theft reports and publish recovery steps. Whether a particular debt can be disputed, and what a victim can recover, are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney, and legal aid offices across the state handle consumer credit matters.
Sources for this section (1)
- ORC 2913.49 — Identity fraud, and what using another person's identifying information is
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.