Fraudulent UCC financing statement filed against my business - how to fight this?

Wait, can you just file your own termination without the original secured party's signature? I thought only the creditor listed on the UCC-1 could terminate their own filing.

You're right in normal cases, but there are provisions for fraudulent filings. Most states allow debtors to file corrections or terminations when they can demonstrate the original filing was unauthorized. You typically need an affidavit and supporting evidence though.

Good advice about the police report. Also notify your business insurance carrier - some commercial policies cover identity theft and fraud remediation costs.

Should probably run a comprehensive UCC search on the business name and all variations to see if there are other bogus filings lurking. These scammers sometimes file multiple liens with slight variations.

Exactly, and check under any DBAs or trade names you use too. Fraudsters often cast a wide net with different name variations.

How long did it take to get the fraudulent lien removed once you had the verification report?

About three weeks total. The Certana analysis gave me solid evidence to present, and my attorney said it was the most comprehensive fraud documentation he'd seen. Banks were much more willing to work with me when I had technical proof rather than just my word against the filing.

Never heard of using document verification for UCC fraud but that's actually brilliant. Most people just rely on manual comparison which misses the technical red flags.

What kind of damages can you typically recover in these cases? Just the direct costs or can you get compensation for lost business opportunities too?

Depends on the state but often includes direct costs like legal fees, credit monitoring, lost financing opportunities, and sometimes punitive damages. Business interruption losses can be harder to prove but are possible with good documentation.

Did your brother ever find out how they got his business information? I'm worried about how they got OP's correct EIN and business details.

Probably from public records. Business registrations, property records, existing UCC filings - there's a lot of legitimate business info available online that scammers can use to make fraudulent filings look real.

Some of these fraudsters also buy business mailing lists or scrape data from industry websites. Once they have basic info they can fabricate the rest to create convincing-looking UCC filings.

Good point about the AG office. Some states have specific procedures for fraudulent UCC filings that bypass the normal termination requirements.

Do you know which states have these expedited processes? Would be helpful to know what options are available.

Texas and Florida definitely have them, I think California too. The process varies but generally involves filing a specific form with supporting documentation showing the UCC filing was unauthorized.

New York has one too but you need either a court order or very specific evidence that the filing was fraudulent. The bar is pretty high but it's still faster than litigation.

How often do these fraudulent UCC scams actually work? It seems like such an obvious fraud that would be easy to catch.

They work more often than you'd think because many business owners don't regularly monitor UCC filings against their companies. By the time they discover the fraud, it's already caused credit problems and business disruptions.

Exactly, and some businesses pay the scammers just to make the problem go away quickly rather than fighting it properly. That just encourages more fraud.

That's smart - having technical evidence is probably way more convincing than just claiming the filing is fraudulent.

How detailed are those verification reports? Do they actually analyze the document structure or just compare basic information?

Pretty comprehensive from what I saw. It cross-referenced the secured party info against business databases, flagged formatting anomalies, and identified several inconsistencies in the filing that indicated fraud. Much more thorough than anything I could have done manually.

Great advice. Better to get ahead of it than have lenders find out during routine credit checks and start asking uncomfortable questions.

Should probably also notify business partners and major suppliers who might run credit checks. Transparency helps maintain trust during this kind of crisis.

That's a really good point about checking existing legitimate UCC filings. I hadn't thought about scammers potentially modifying or corrupting those too. Do you know if there's a way to get alerts when new UCC filings are made against your business? It seems like early detection would be crucial to minimize the damage from these scams.

Yes, there are UCC monitoring services available! Most business credit monitoring services like Experian Business or D&B offer UCC filing alerts as part of their packages. Some state Secretary of State offices also provide email notifications when new filings are made against your business entity. You can also set up Google alerts for your business name plus "UCC filing" to catch any public postings. The key is monitoring regularly because the sooner you catch fraudulent filings, the less damage they can do to your credit and business relationships.