Someone else’s debt is sitting on your credit report, and the usual fix is a dispute. A dispute gives the furnisher 30 days to verify an account a thief opened. Section 605B of the FCRA works faster: a credit bureau must block information that came from identity theft within four business days of getting a complete request.
The right is codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-2. You file it with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion one at a time, and the whole thing turns on sending a complete package.
What are the key facts about a 605B block?
A 605B block is a legal order you trigger yourself, so you hold more power than a dispute gives you. Once a bureau receives a complete request, it has four business days to stop reporting the fraudulent items and to tell the furnisher. Here are the rules that matter most before you mail anything.
- Deadline: The bureau must block identity theft items within four business days of a complete request.
- Package: You need proof of identity, an identity theft report, the specific items, and a statement that you did not make those transactions.
- Furnisher: The bureau must promptly notify the furnisher, which cannot re-report the blocked information.
- Debt: A debt covered by a block generally cannot be sold or placed for collection.
- Limits: The bureau can decline or rescind a block only for error, misrepresentation, or goods you actually received.
- Fit: For true identity theft items, a block is faster and stronger than an ordinary dispute.
Fraud alerts run under a different section, covered in our guide to extended fraud alerts under Section 605A. State-level identity theft remedies are also separate, and we leave them out here.
What does a 605B block actually do?
A block is the FCRA’s surgical remedy for identity theft. The bureau does not ask the furnisher to investigate. It stops reporting the tainted information outright: the fraudulent tradeline, its balance, its payment history, and related inquiries all come off the file within four business days.
The block also reaches forward. The bureau must promptly tell the furnisher three things: the information may be the result of identity theft, an identity theft report has been filed, and a block has been requested. That notice triggers the furnisher’s own duty to stop reporting the item to any bureau.
The words in a 605B request have exact meanings, and mixing them up is how packages stall.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Block | The bureau stops reporting items that came from identity theft |
| Furnisher | The lender or collector that sent the item to the bureau |
| Identity theft report | An FTC portal report or a police report describing the theft |
| Rescission | The bureau lifts a block it already placed, on narrow grounds |
| Tradeline | One account as it appears on a credit report |
How common are identity theft items on credit reports?
Errors on credit reports are common, and plenty of them come from someone else’s activity. In the congressionally mandated national accuracy study, one in five consumers had an error on at least one of their three credit reports (FTC, 2013). Identity theft adds to the pile: the FTC took more than 1.1 million identity theft reports through IdentityTheft.gov in 2024 (FTC, 2025).
Complaints show where the pain lands. Of 3,482,718 complaints under “Incorrect information on your report” recorded in the CFPB’s public Consumer Complaint Database from July 2025 through June 2026, 66.9% say the information belongs to someone else, based on our own read of that database. Account information that is wrong makes up 18.4%, and a wrong account status makes up 8.7%. These complaints are unverified consumer allegations, and the CFPB does not confirm the facts in them.
Credit reporting drew 88% of the roughly 6.6 million complaints the CFPB received in 2025, according to its Consumer Response Annual Report. Most people who end up there tried a dispute first. For stolen-identity items, the block is the tool built for the job.
What must be included in a block request?
Section 605B lists four required elements, and a missing piece is the most common reason a block stalls. The identity theft report is the centerpiece. A report created through the Federal Trade Commission portal at identitytheft.gov meets the definition, and so does a police report describing the theft.
- Proof of identity, such as a government-issued ID plus a utility bill or bank statement showing your current address, per each bureau’s stated rules.
- A copy of the identity theft report, from the FTC portal or a law enforcement agency.
- The specific items on the report that came from the theft, with a copy of your report and those items circled.
- A statement that the information does not relate to any transaction you made.
Each bureau keeps its own file. A block granted at one does not carry over to the other two, and the items can differ by bureau depending on where the thief’s creditors reported.
How do you file a 605B block, step by step?
Filing a block takes six steps, and every one of them leaves a paper trail you will want later. Work through them in order for each bureau that shows the fraud.
| Step | What you do | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pull all three reports | Get your reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion | Each bureau lists different items |
| 2. File your FTC report | Complete the report at IdentityTheft.gov or file with police | It is the heart of the package |
| 3. Mark each item | Circle every fraudulent account, inquiry and address | Vague requests never start the clock |
| 4. Write the letter | Ask for a block under FCRA Section 605B | Naming the section invokes the deadline |
| 5. Mail certified | Send each packet with return receipt requested | The receipt proves the delivery date |
| 6. Track and follow up | Count four business days from delivery | A missed deadline is a statutory violation |
The FTC’s portal offers a credit bureau letter you can use as a starting point. Whatever you use, send a separate packet to each bureau.
What should a 605B block letter say?
A 605B letter names the statute, lists each item, and attaches the proof. Keep it plain. The bureau is looking for four elements, and extra storytelling slows it down. Here is a format you can copy and fill in.
[Your full name]
[Your current address]
[Date of birth] | [Last four digits of SSN]
[Bureau name and address]
Re: Request to block identity theft information under FCRA Section 605B (15 U.S.C. 1681c-2)
I am a victim of identity theft. Please block the following information,
which resulted from identity theft and does not relate to any transaction I made:
1. [Creditor or collector name], account ending [####], [type of account]
2. [Creditor name], hard inquiry dated [date]
3. [Address or employer you did not provide]
Enclosed: a copy of my government-issued ID, proof of my current address,
my identity theft report, and a copy of my credit report with each item circled.
Please block these items within four business days and notify each furnisher
as Section 605B requires.
[Signature]
Where do you mail a 605B block request?
Mail each packet by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the fraud address each bureau publishes. These are the addresses the bureaus list for identity theft mail.
- Equifax: P.O. Box 105069, Atlanta, GA 30348-5069
- Experian: P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013
- TransUnion: Fraud Victim Assistance Dept., P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016
Check each bureau’s site before you mail, because addresses change. Sending the package by a method that documents delivery starts each bureau’s four-day clock. It also builds the record you need if a bureau fails to act on time.
How is a 605B block different from a regular dispute?
A block is one of four federal tools for fraud on a credit file, and each does a different job. Under the FCRA, a bureau handling an ordinary dispute generally has 30 days to reinvestigate (FCRA Section 611). Here is how the block compares with the dispute, the fraud alert, and the security freeze.
| Tool | Legal basis | Timeline | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 605B block | 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-2 | 4 business days | Stops reporting identity theft items and bars re-reporting |
| Dispute | 15 U.S.C. § 1681i | 30 days | Checks accuracy through the furnisher |
| Fraud alert | 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1 | 1 year, or 7 with a report | Requires identity checks before new credit |
| Security freeze | 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1(i) | Free, until lifted | Stops new creditors from pulling the file |
The tools work together. Someone recovering from identity theft usually files the block to clean the file, adds a fraud alert or freeze to stop new fraud, and keeps the ordinary dispute for items that are just wrong. Bureaus and furnishers must run a reasonable, independent investigation on a dispute (FCRA Section 611(a)(1)(A) and Section 623(b); Cushman v. Trans Union, 3d Cir. 1997). Even so, choosing the dispute path for true fraud is a common mistake, because it hands the furnisher 30 days to verify an account the thief opened.
How fast must the bureau act?
Four business days, counted from receipt of the complete request. That deadline covers both the block and the prompt notice to the furnisher. It makes 605B far faster than the 30-day reinvestigation window for ordinary disputes under Section 611.
The speed comes from how the law is built. Once you swear to the theft and document it, identity theft items are presumed removable. The bureau’s job is to carry out the block. Its check on misuse comes afterward, through its limited power to decline or rescind.
Can a bureau refuse or remove a block?
Yes, but only on narrow grounds. The bureau can decline or rescind a block if it reasonably finds the request was made in error, that material facts were misrepresented, or that you actually got goods, services, or money from the blocked transaction.
If it declines or rescinds, the bureau must tell you promptly, the same way it reports reinvestigation results. You can then pursue the items through the ordinary dispute channel. A rescission is not a finding of fraud by you. It is a reclassification of the claim.
The goods-and-services ground trips up real victims most often. It usually shows up in familiar-fraud cases, where a relative used your identity and some benefit arguably flowed back to the household.
Skip the paperwork. Start your dispute.
CreditRefresh drafts your FCRA dispute letter and tracks the 30-day investigation window. You review, approve, and send. You stay in control.
Get StartedWhat happens to the debt after a block?
A block reaches past the credit file. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681m(f), a person notified that a debt came from identity theft generally may not sell, transfer, or place that debt for collection. That cuts off the resale cycle that keeps fraudulent debts popping up under new collectors.
It matters because collections are everywhere. About 77 million Americans, 35% of adults with a credit file, have debt in collections on their report (Urban Institute, 2025).
The furnisher, once notified, must also keep procedures to prevent re-reporting. A blocked item that reappears is a serious compliance failure, and your block paperwork makes the repeat violation easy to show. If you hand a collector your identity theft report directly, you gain a parallel protection under the FDCPA, since continued collection on documented fraud becomes hard to defend.
What should a consumer do before filing a block?
The block works best as one step in a full recovery plan. The broader playbook, from the FTC report to new account passwords, is in our guide on the seven critical identity theft steps. The credit-report side is covered in our complete guide to identity theft and credit reports.
Place a security freeze at the same time so the thief cannot open anything new while the cleanup runs. The steps are in our guide on freezing credit. The freeze costs nothing at any of the three bureaus.
What if the bureau ignores a block request?
A bureau that misses the four-business-day deadline, or fails to notify the furnisher, is breaking a specific legal duty. Your first move is a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, covered in our guide on filing a CFPB complaint. It creates a record the regulator tracks and the bureau must answer.
Beyond the complaint, the FCRA gives you a private right of action for willful or negligent noncompliance, with statutory and actual damages available. Your dated delivery receipts are what turn a missed deadline into a claim you can prove. That is why the paperwork matters from the first mailing.
What items can be blocked under Section 605B?
Anything on the report that came from the theft qualifies. That covers fraudulent tradelines and their balances, hard inquiries from the thief’s applications, collection accounts that grew out of the fraudulent debts, and addresses or employers the thief added to your file.
The boundary is causation. An account you really opened, even one with disputed charges, cannot be blocked. That situation runs through the billing-error and ordinary dispute channels. Your statement that the information does not relate to any transaction you made has to be true for every item on the list.
List each item by name, with account numbers and report references. A request that just says “fraudulent accounts” gives the bureau grounds to call the package incomplete, and the four-day clock never starts.
How long does a 605B block last?
Indefinitely, unless the bureau rescinds it on the narrow grounds in the statute. A properly granted block is a removal, and the furnisher notice is designed to keep the item from coming back through the normal monthly reporting cycle.
Monitoring still matters. Blocked debts sometimes resurface under a new collector that was never notified, and consumers often tell the CFPB that identical inaccurate items came back after being removed (CFPB, 2024). A regular check of all three reports catches a comeback early. Your original block file makes a repeat request easier to support and adds weight to any complaint.
Keep the identity theft report, the block request, and the delivery receipts together in one permanent file. That habit pays off years later, when a resold version of the debt shows up under a name you do not know.
Which Tool Helps You Watch All Three Bureaus After a 605B Block?
You file the block yourself, for the price of postage, so the real choice is what watches your reports once it is granted. What you are paying for is whether a tool covers Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and whether it helps you act when a blocked debt comes back.
| Tool | What you pay | What that buys after a 605B block | Bureaus | Trustpilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CreditRefresh | $49.99/mo, no setup fee, cancel anytime. Mail letters yourself free, or pay RushMail per letter | Monitors all three reports and drafts a dispute letter you sign | All three | 4.3 (9 reviews) |
| Dispute Beast | From $49.99/mo for required monitoring. Mail letters yourself free, or pay Sprint Mail per letter | AI dispute app bundled with paid monitoring, with a training session | All three | 4.2 (2,067 reviews) |
| DisputeBee | $49/mo personal, $129/mo business | Letter software; you print, mail and track responses without bundled monitoring | All three | 3.2 (68 reviews) |
| The Credit People | $99/mo standard, $119/mo premium, or $599 for 6 months | Done-for-you service; you do not see or approve each letter | All three | 1.7 (17 reviews) |
| Lexington Law | $139.95/mo, invoiced at the end of each service period | Law firm handles challenges; no self-serve dispute tool | All three | 3.2 (624 reviews) |
| Credit Karma | Free, paid for by lender referrals | Free monitoring; Direct Dispute works with TransUnion only | TransUnion | 1.1 (912 reviews) |
Every price is that company’s own published rate, read off that company’s own site on September 15, 2026. Trustpilot scores and review counts as published on September 24, 2026.
Free monitoring that stops at one bureau leaves you exposed right after identity theft. One Credit Karma user put it this way:
“I had a terrible experience and it’s really unacceptable that CK dont have a reliable customer support. This really happened after i experienced identity theft fraud issue which i don’t know how my information got leaked. This became a serious issue that dented my report negatively.”
Mistress Tess, a 1-star Trustpilot review of Credit Karma, September 3, 2026
How CreditRefresh Watches All Three Bureaus for $49.99 After a Block
A 605B block is a one-time filing, and the risk after it is a resold debt slipping back onto a report you stopped checking. Our follow-up data comes from ordinary disputes, a different case from a 605B block, but it shows what monitoring can see after a letter goes out. In CreditRefresh’s September 18, 2026 member-data extract, 2.3% of disputed bureau-level items in mailed rounds had a recorded outcome. Within that subset, 47.9% were no longer reported on a newer pull of the same bureau, while 52.1% remained reported with a changed balance, status or negative flag.
CreditRefresh comes with Refresh Monitoring, which connects your Equifax, Experian and TransUnion reports through our data partner Array. The AI scans every account and flags items that look inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, or too old to report. It then drafts a tailored FCRA dispute letter for each item you choose. Nothing goes out until you review and sign it, and every letter is logged with the date it went out and tracked against the bureau’s roughly 30-day window.
It costs $49.99 a month, with no setup fee, no per-dispute charge, and no contract. Mail letters yourself, or hand a round to RushMail for a small per-letter fee. Keep your 605B paperwork in your own file; we watch the three reports it protects.
It is backed by our 100% money-back guarantee: members who work the full program and see no bureau score rise above where they started can claim back every Refresh Monitoring payment. It is a refund promise, never a score promise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a police report qualify for a 605B block?
Yes. An identity theft report filed with a law enforcement agency qualifies, and so does the report from the FTC portal at identitytheft.gov. It must describe the theft clearly enough that the bureau can connect it to the items you want blocked.
Can I get my credit reports free after identity theft?
The FCRA gives every consumer the right to a free report from each of the three bureaus. Pull all three before you file, since a block at one bureau does not reach the other two.
Does a block at Equifax also block the item at Experian and TransUnion?
No. Each bureau keeps its own file, so you send a separate packet to each bureau that shows the fraud.
Can I block an account a family member opened in my name?
Yes, if you did not open it and got nothing from it. The bureau can decline if it finds you received goods, services, or money from the transaction, which is the most common snag in familiar-fraud cases.
Does a 605B block stop collectors from pursuing the debt?
Largely, yes. Once notified that a debt came from identity theft, a person generally cannot sell, transfer, or place it for collection under 15 U.S.C. § 1681m(f). A collector that keeps going on a blocked debt faces both FCRA and FDCPA liability.
What if a blocked debt comes back under a new collector?
Send that bureau a new request with your original block paperwork and the new collector’s name. If the bureau does not act, file a CFPB complaint and keep every receipt.
Can CreditRefresh file a 605B block for me?
No. You file the block yourself with the FTC report and the letter format above. CreditRefresh monitors all three reports afterward and drafts FCRA dispute letters you review and sign.
How long should I keep my 605B paperwork?
Keep it permanently. Resold debts can surface years later, and the original report, letter, and delivery receipts are your proof.
Last reviewed: September 2026
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. The Fair Credit Reporting Act and related regulations are complex, and outcomes depend on individual circumstances. Consumers with specific questions about their credit reports or rights under federal law should consult a licensed attorney or contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau directly.
CreditRefresh watches Equifax, Experian and TransUnion after your 605B block and drafts a dispute letter you sign if a blocked debt reappears. Backed by a 100% money-back guarantee.
