Missouri Identity Theft Laws: Penalties, Civil Remedies, and Reporting

This page covers identity theft law in Missouri under RSMo Section 570.223, including its value-based penalty tiers, its built-in private civil lawsuit right, and the Attorney General's identity theft resources. It does not cover federal identity theft law in depth; for that layer, see our identity theft laws hub and our guide to reporting identity theft.

Missouri's Identity Theft Statute

RSMo Section 570.223 defines identity theft as knowingly and with intent to deceive or defraud obtaining or using one or more means of identification not lawfully issued for the person's own use. The penalty is tiered by the value of property or benefit obtained rather than by a flat classification. With no property gained, the offense is a Class B misdemeanor. At a value «not exceeding» $750, it is a Class A misdemeanor, so a loss of exactly $750 stays a misdemeanor. Above $750 and not exceeding $25,000, it is a Class D felony. Above $25,000 and not exceeding $75,000, it is a Class C felony. Above $75,000, it is a Class B felony, the statute's top tier. A repeat offender, meaning someone with a prior identity theft conviction who commits another offense not exceeding $750 in value, faces an enhanced Class E felony rather than the Class A misdemeanor that offense would otherwise carry on its own. The statute was last substantively amended by 2014 legislation, S.B. 491, effective January 1, 2017, and has not been amended since.

Missouri's Built-In Civil Lawsuit Right

Unlike many states, Missouri's identity theft statute creates its own private civil cause of action directly within the criminal statute. Section 570.223 allows a victim to recover «up to five thousand dollars for each incident, or three times the amount of actual damages, whichever amount is greater,» in a lawsuit filed «within five years from the date on which the identity of the wrongdoer was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.» The statute specifies these civil remedies exist «in addition to any other rights and remedies provided by law,» meaning a victim is not forced to choose between the criminal restitution process and a separate civil suit.

The statute also authorizes restitution as part of a criminal sentence, covering costs, including attorney fees, for credit repair and legal proceedings arising from the theft. Restitution is discretionary rather than automatic: the statute provides that «the court may order that the defendant make restitution to any victim of the offense,» so whether it is imposed is up to the sentencing judge.

No Missouri-Specific Minor Credit Freeze Law

Missouri's own security-freeze statute, RSMo Sections 407.1380 through 407.1385, contains no minor or protected-consumer provision, no age threshold, and no guardian-request procedure. Section 407.1382's live text explicitly applies the freeze right to «a consumer» generally, with no age-based distinction. That means Missouri has no state-law analog to a protected-consumer freeze statute, and residents, including for minors, rely on the federal protected-consumer security freeze right under 15 U.S.C. Section 1681c-1(j), in place since 2018. This statute has not been amended since its original 2008 enactment. See our guide to credit freeze vs. fraud alert for how the federal freeze process works.

Data Breach Notification and Attorney General Enforcement

Missouri's data breach notification law, RSMo Section 407.1500, gives the Attorney General exclusive authority to bring an action for a «willful and knowing violation of this section,» and in such an action the Attorney General may seek a civil penalty of up to $150,000 per breach, or per series of breaches of a similar nature discovered in a single investigation. That penalty is tied to a willful and knowing violation, not to an inadvertent notification failure. This gives the state a direct enforcement tool against companies whose data-security failures lead to identity theft, separate from the criminal statute that targets the individual thief.

Reporting Identity Theft in Missouri

The Missouri Attorney General's Consumer Protection office confirms a consumer hotline at 800-392-8222, where «complaint investigators will also help advise victims of identity theft.» The office describes three separate reporting paths: an Identity Theft Complaint Form filed with the Attorney General's office, an Identity Theft Incident Report filed with local police, and the FTC's online complaint portal. The page also offers an Identity Theft Preventive Checklist, an Identity Theft Repair Checklist, and an Identity Theft Resource Guide, and breaks its victim guidance into eight theft types: financial, medical, insurance, synthetic, driver's license, criminal, Social Security, and child identity theft. No Missouri identity theft passport or victim-certification program was found; the Attorney General's own page does not mention one, and a review of the relevant chapter of Missouri statutes found no certification or repository section addressing one either, indicating a genuine absence rather than a search that failed to find one.

The Federal Layer

Regardless of state, identity theft is also a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. Section 1028. The Federal Trade Commission's free recovery site, IdentityTheft.gov, walks victims through reporting what happened and building a personal recovery plan. Federal law has also required free credit freezes and free fraud alerts at all three credit bureaus since 2018, and FCRA Section 605B lets a victim with an FTC Identity Theft Report get fraudulent information blocked from their credit report. See our identity theft laws hub for the complete federal picture.

Information last verified on 2026-08-13, drawn directly from RSMo Section 570.223, Section 407.1382, and Section 407.1500 on revisor.mo.gov, and the Attorney General's Consumer Corner identity theft page. 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: 2026-08-13.