INDIANAPOLIS -- Equifax, one of the nation's three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, has agreed to pay Indiana $65,000 to resolve allegations that the company didn't comply with the state's credit freeze law, the Indiana Attorney General's Office said Tuesday.

The company had been accused of failing to place security freezes, confirmation of those freezes and personal identification numbers to consumers in a timely fashion, as prescribed by state law.

"This law was enacted to give consumers a layer of protection against identity theft and other forms of personal identity fraud," Attorney General Steve Carter said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. "The freeze doesn't provide the protections it was designed to give our citizens when the required timeframes and other requirements of the law were not followed."

Indiana's credit freeze law that went into effect in September 2007 requires credit reporting agencies to freeze an individual's credit report within five days of receiving a written request from the consumer. The credit agency is also required to provide PINs, along with instructions to temporarily lift or permanently remove a freeze within 10 days of receiving a consumer request.

The PIN requirement allows consumers to apply for new credit or access a credit report. Reporting agencies are required to lift a credit freeze within three business days of getting a consumer request to do so.

Consumers are not required to pay to place, lift or remove a freeze, but they must provide a written request to change the status of a freeze. The AG's office said 40 states currently have similar laws allowing credit freezes.

Indiana's law will change slightly in January to allow credit agency requests sent by e-mail and phone, instead of the current mail requirement.

Since October 2007, the attorney general had received complaints from 16 people and 13 of those cases were still open.