Handbook·State government

How to use state auditor and attorney general complaints

Guide·Effort 10-20 min·Leverage MODERATE·Verified 2026-07-10

The answer

Two different state offices take citizen complaints, and picking the right one matters. A state Attorney General's consumer protection division handles complaints against businesses, scammers, and charities, and in some states government non-compliance, through an online form.1 A State Auditor or Inspector General fraud hotline handles misuse of state government money or misconduct by state employees and agencies.2 Both take 10-20 minutes to file and require no lawyer. These offices see far less individual traffic than federal counterparts, so a specific, well-documented complaint is more likely to register as a signal rather than get lost in volume. Reliable as an information pipeline that regulators use to spot patterns and open cases, weak as a guarantee of an individual remedy or update on your specific complaint.

Before you go

  • Confirm the target: business or consumer harm goes to the AG, government financial misconduct or waste goes to the state auditor.
  • Check whether your state's AG handles the issue at all. Some categories, utility billing, insurance, banking, route to a separate state regulator instead.
  • Gather documents: contracts, receipts, correspondence, dates, and dollar amounts before you start the form.
  • Decide whether you want or need anonymity. Most auditor hotlines accept anonymous tips. AG consumer complaints usually require your contact information for follow-up or mediation.

The mechanics

  1. Find your state's AG consumer complaint portal. Nearly every state has one, and the National Association of Attorneys General maintains a directory since it doesn't accept complaints itself.1
  2. Fill in the online form: your info, the business's info, a factual timeline, and the dollar amount in dispute. Attach documents if the portal allows it.
  3. For government financial misconduct instead, find your state's auditor or inspector general hotline, for example California's Whistleblower Hotline2 or Texas's SAO Fraud Hotline at 1-800-TX-AUDIT.3
  4. Submit by phone, web form, mail, or fax depending on the office. Auditor hotlines commonly accept anonymous tips, AG portals usually do not.
  5. Expect an intake acknowledgment, not a promise of investigation. Analysts triage volume and pattern before opening a case.

What to say

State the facts plainly: who, what happened, when, how much money, and what you already tried to resolve it. Avoid speculation about motive. Attach or reference documentary proof.

On [date], I paid [$ amount] to [business] for [service/
product]. They [failed to deliver/misrepresented/
overcharged]. I contacted them on [date] and received
[response/no response]. I am attaching [receipt/contract/
emails].

What happens next

An individual AG complaint may lead to informal mediation, a referral, or simply get logged as data, unless it joins a pattern that triggers a formal investigation or multistate action. Washington's AG turned complaints about inadequate care at 10 senior-living facilities into a 2025 Consumer Protection Act settlement requiring $7 million in service improvements and a $250 credit to roughly 800 residents.4 Auditor hotline tips feed periodic public case reports. California's fraud hotline reviewed 2,636 allegations from January 2024 through October 2025 and substantiated findings totaling more than $5 million in wasted or misused funds.5 Timelines run from weeks for simple mediations to a year or more for multi-party investigations.

Does it work

As a pattern-detection pipeline, yes, both the Washington and California cases above are real, named, dated outcomes traced to complaint volume.4 As a guarantee that your specific complaint gets a visible answer, no. Neither office publishes what share of individual complaints ever produces a visible outcome for the filer.

Take action

Which office has jurisdiction over what, and whether a hotline exists at all, varies by state. Check /engage for your state AG's consumer portal and your state auditor's fraud hotline.

Sources

  1. National Association of Attorneys General, "Consumer File a Complaint," 2026. source ↩ ↩2

  2. California State Auditor, "Whistleblower Program" hotline page and brochure, 2026. source ↩ ↩2

  3. Texas State Auditor's Office, "To Report Fraud" (SAO Fraud Hotline, 1-800-TX-AUDIT), 2026. source ↩

  4. Washington State Office of the Attorney General, "Bonaventure will pay $7 million to improve services at 10 long-term care facilities in WA," 2025. source ↩ ↩2

  5. California State Auditor, Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and Employees, Report I2025-1, 2025. source ↩