Connecticut Identity Theft Laws: Degrees, Penalties, and Reporting

Connecticut tiers identity theft into three degrees, first through third, under Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 53a-129a through 53a-129d, with the dollar value involved determining the degree, and an age-based rule that removes the dollar threshold entirely for victims 60 and older, so that conduct satisfies at least second-degree identity theft regardless of value. Unlike most states, Connecticut's Attorney General has no dedicated identity theft page or unit; the state routes prevention guidance and complaints through two different agencies instead.

This page covers the three degrees and their penalties, Connecticut's civil action for identity theft damages, credit freezes for minors, and exactly which state agency to contact, since it is not the one most people would guess. For the broader picture, see our identity theft laws hub and our guide to reporting identity theft.

Connecticut's Three Degrees of Identity Theft

Connecticut defines identity theft in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-129a: a person commits the offense when they knowingly use personally identifying information of another person to obtain, or attempt to obtain, money, credit, goods, services, property, or medical information without that other person's consent. "Personal identifying information" is defined broadly and includes a name, date of birth, mother's maiden name, driver's license number, Social Security number, employee or taxpayer ID number, alien registration number, passport number, health insurance ID, bank or card account numbers, and biometric data.

Connecticut then splits the offense into three degrees under §§ 53a-129b through 53a-129d. First degree identity theft is a Class B felony, second degree is a Class C felony, and third degree is a Class D felony, classifications confirmed directly against the official text of Penal Code Chapter 952, current as of January 1, 2026.

The Age-Based Value Threshold

Per the primary statute text of Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 53a-129b and 53a-129c, the degree charged is not based purely on dollar value alone; it also depends on the victim's age. For a victim under 60, first degree requires the value obtained to exceed $10,000, second degree requires it to exceed $5,000, and third degree is the base offense with no value element required at all. For a victim 60 or older, the value threshold for second degree disappears entirely: § 53a-129c defines second degree identity theft as occurring when the victim is under 60 and the value exceeds $5,000, OR the victim is 60 years of age or older, with no dollar floor at all.

That means any identity theft against a victim 60 or older satisfies at least second degree, a Class C felony, even for a small loss or a mere attempt, and it satisfies first degree, a Class B felony, once the value exceeds $5,000. Third degree is not ruled out as a matter of law in those cases. Section 53a-129d contains no age element and no value element: its single requirement is that the person committed identity theft as defined in § 53a-129a. The age rule adds a higher available degree; it does not make the base tier legally unavailable.

Connecticut's Civil Action for Identity Theft Damages

Connecticut gives identity theft victims a dedicated private civil action under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-571h, titled "Action for damages resulting from identity theft" in Chapter 925. The current codified text of subsection (b) confirms the damages formula directly: a court shall award the greater of one thousand dollars or treble damages, together with costs and a reasonable attorney's fee. The same subsection also lets a court award not less than two years of commercially available identity theft monitoring and protection. Subsection (c) sets a three-year discovery-based limitations period for bringing the claim. Confirm how these figures apply to your specific situation with a licensed Connecticut attorney.

Where to Report: Not the Attorney General

Connecticut is a genuine outlier here. Checking live, the Connecticut Attorney General's site has no dedicated identity theft page or unit for this topic. Instead, two different agencies split the work. The Department of Consumer Protection runs a prevention-focused identity theft page that recommends creating a Social Security Administration online account to monitor benefits, pulling free annual credit reports through annualcreditreport.com, and links out to FTC child-identity-theft guidance and to the Department of Banking's complaint process.

The Department of Banking is the actual complaint intake point for identity theft matters involving credit reporting bureaus, collection agencies, and databases holding personal information. You can file through its online Customer Assistance Form, call 860-240-8170 or toll-free 1-800-831-7225 (option 2), or email banking.complaints@ct.gov, though the department's own site warns that email channel is unsecured. The Department of Banking's page cites Conn. Gen. Stat. § 36a-701b, the state's breach-of-security and personal-information definition statute, but does not itself walk through security freeze mechanics or a minor-specific freeze procedure.

Credit Freezes for Minors in Connecticut

Connecticut has its own consumer security-freeze statute, § 36a-701a, and it carries the minor-child mechanism inside that general section rather than in a separate protected-consumer section, which is why the chapter's table of contents shows no minor-specific heading. Under subsection (j), the parent or legal guardian of a minor child may place a security freeze on the child's credit report by submitting a written request to the credit rating agency, with proper identification and sufficient proof of authority to act on the child's behalf. The agency must place the freeze as soon as practicable and no later than five business days after receiving the request.

Subsection (j) also covers the case that matters most for children, where there is nothing to freeze yet. If the credit rating agency holds no information on the child when the request arrives, it must create a record for the child and place the freeze on that record. The same subsection bars the agency from using that record to consider the child's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living, and bars it from releasing the child's credit report, anything derived from it, or the created record.

Subsection (k) gives the matching removal right. A parent or legal guardian may request removal by written request on the same terms, and the agency must remove the freeze no later than fifteen business days after receiving that request. Subsection (i)(1) bars a credit rating agency from charging a consumer any fee for placing, removing, or temporarily lifting a security freeze. Federal law runs alongside the state right: 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1(j) requires all three nationwide credit bureaus to let a parent or guardian freeze a child's credit file for free, even before the child has a credit file at all. See our credit freeze vs. fraud alert page for how the freeze right works generally.

Restitution

Connecticut has a general restitution-enforcement statute, § 53a-28a, confirmed to exist in the Chapter 952 table of contents, but it is a general sentencing provision rather than an identity-theft-specific mandatory-restitution clause. The identity theft sections themselves impose no restitution requirement. The full text of §§ 53a-129a through 53a-129e defines the offense, sets the three degrees and their felony classes, and adds the trafficking offense, and none of those sections contains a restitution clause. A victim seeking money back from the offender directly has the civil action under § 52-571h described above, which does carry a mandatory damages award.

Federal Rights That Apply in Every State

On top of Connecticut's own framework, every identity theft victim also has federal rights that do not depend on state law. IdentityTheft.gov, run by the FTC, is a free national recovery site that builds a personal recovery plan once you describe what happened. Once you have an FTC Identity Theft Report, 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-2 (FCRA § 605B) requires a credit bureau to block fraudulent information from your report within 4 business days of receiving your documentation. Federal law has also made both credit freezes and fraud alerts free at all three bureaus since 2018, under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1. See our guides to reporting identity theft and credit freeze vs. fraud alert for the full mechanics of both.

Connecticut's statutes portal states its online text is "revised to January 1, 2026," and directs readers to a 2026 Supplement for anything enacted in the 2025 session. The full section text of §§ 53a-129a through 53a-129e, § 52-571h and § 36a-701a shows no textual sign of a 2025 or 2026 amendment. This is suggestive, not a substitute for a dedicated legislative bill-tracking search, so treat it as a partial check.

Information last verified on 2026-09-02, drawn from the current text of Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 53a-129a through 53a-129e, § 52-571h and § 36a-701a as published on the Connecticut General Assembly's statutes portal, the Connecticut Judicial Branch's Criminal Jury Instructions, and the Connecticut Departments of Consumer Protection and Banking. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Related Resources

• Identity Theft Laws: Federal Rules and State Penalties
• How to Report Identity Theft
• Credit Freeze vs. Fraud Alert

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Last updated: 2026-09-02.