COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — A Colorado Springs man is sharing his story after he discovered someone registered a business to his home address without his permission.
“Just like every day, I went out to my mailbox late December and I noticed that there was two envelopes and it had, like, a weird abbreviated LLC with my address," Tim Johnson said, “so initially, I didn't think it was any big deal, and I thought, well, I'll just put “not at this address” and I put it back in the mailbox."
The registered agent on the business is another LLC, Prime Pick Brands, which appears to be the agent on nearly 60 businesses in the state.
"When is the madness going to stop?" Johnson said. "I mean, first of all, we can't answer our cell phones because there are scams. We can't answer a text because they're scams, we can't read our email, and now someone can just take your address without asking just to open up an LLC?"
News5Investigates discovered the businesses registered under Prime Pick Brands are nearly all home addresses in the state from the Denver metro area to Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
When more mail arrived a few days later, Johnson became concerned.
"I start[ed] worrying a little bit. I said, [this is] more than a coincidence," Johnson said.
Johnson filed a fraud report with the Secretary of State’s office but was told it could take months before it’s resolved.
Since 2023, the Secretary of State's office has identified more than 5,000 cases of business fraud. This could involve someone using another person's personal information to set up a business or changing a legitimate business's information without permission.
In 2022, state lawmakers created a process for the Secretary of State's office and the Attorney General to investigate business fraud. The secretary of state’s office says currently there are 1,789 cases being investigated.
In 2025, stricter guardrails were put in place. For example, a P.O. box cannot be the address of a registered agent, and the registered agent must have a valid Colorado driver’s license or an address verified through the state.
"There's no gray area, it’s not theirs, they're not a tenant. It's my house, and I don't want them using my address, as simple as that," Johnson said.
When someone signs up for a business, if the principal address of the business is in Colorado and the Post Office shows it's a legitimate Colorado address, it's accepted. However, if the address is outside the state, there’s an additional verification process where the registered agent needs to have a state driver's license or get the address verified through the state sending a passcode in the mail.
In Johnson's case, fraudsters used his home address as the principal address, and since it's a legitimate Colorado address, it was accepted.
The Secretary of State's office was not available for an interview but provided the following statement:
“The Colorado Department of State is committed to protecting Coloradans from business identity theft, and to continually iterating and improving our protections to combat this pervasive nationwide issue. “
Attempts to reach the property owner listed on the address associated with Primepick Brands LLC were unsuccessful.
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