Business Filings Division Fraud/Scam Alert!

UPDATE: STATE OF CALIFORNIA IS FINALLY SUING THESE BASTARDS FOR OVER $3 MILLION, READ HERE!  YES!!!

Couple days ago, I received a mail from the State of California (or I thought it was).  It looked like some kind of State of Information update plus I needed to remit $239.00 right away.  Well, it says, “Avoid Penalties, Fines, and Suspension” so I immediately filled it out and wrote a check.

Right before I closed the envelope, I noticed that there was a fine print at the bottom:

Also I thought about why in the hell State of California wanted me to “REMIT IMMEDIATELY”.

Something was seriously wrong here and I have already filed my State of Information over 6 months ago.

Upon investigation on the internet, I found this article.

Clearly, this is a scam:

The document has what looks like a California State Seal, lists all of Hale’ Koa’s information like the control number, CA LLC # and a demand for payment with a due date. The document is very similar to the official document provided by the state with only a few small differences and of coarse the amount, which is $239.00 to file the $20.00 filing fees. It even has a Sacramento address. It all looks very official and with the exception of one very small item in very small print on the bottom of the document that states:

THIS PRODUCT OR SERVICE HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY AND THIS OFFER IS NOT BEING MADE BY AN AGENT OF THE GOVERNMENT.

Also read the comments here, other people have been getting scammed.

The whole letter:

I wonder how many unsuspecting corporations and businesses have sent in $239.00.

If 10,000 businesses sent in $239, that’s about $2,390,000!

Talk about major fraud.  I don’t know why the government hasn’t shut them down yet.

I even called their phone number 916-903-5355, it was an automated voicemail and there was no way to actually reach a live person.

Also, I even googled their address, the business does not exist.

They are actually using Regus, a company that provides shared “virtual” offices. (Regus’s Sacramento location matches this address.)

980 Ninth Street 16th floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

or

980 9th 16th floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Basically they are using a virtual office to forward all their mail and checks to someone we don’t know.

There’s many shady and scammy business like this I have seen in the past.  If you get a letter from a private company other than the State of California (or the state you have a company in, read the fine lines carefully!

This letter looks exactly like a real Statement of Information, except they have made things in fine print that a lot of busy people might skim through.

Phew, I just saved $239.00, what a great day.

I will try to send this out to Consumerist.com to protect against other companies being scammed from this company.  Perhaps they can help us get the word out.

UPDATE: More websites I have found confirming this scam company:

• Taxloopholes.com
• Fryewiles.com
• MyWifeQuitHerJob.com
• See comments on Yelp.com
• NewsBlaze.com
• Business Filings Division has F rating on BBB
• Bakersfield.com
• BNIEmbarcadero.com
• WhoCallsMe.com
• Rikdaddy.com
• BenJiTao.com

A lot of these blog posts have come up recently, I am thinking the scam company’s strategy is to quickly make a ton of money and run.

It looks like from comments I have seen on the other blogs, the State of California is actually doing NOTHING to stop these scammers.

If anyone knows news reporters, please tell them to make a news story so State of California will fix this.  Also, from what I see, this might be an “insider” job, someone must have information to all the corporations/LLCs, meaning someone who’s working for State of California is probably behind this.

P.S. There’s also a Customer Alert from California Secretary of State Debra Bowen here. 16th floor, 980 ninth street, business filings, business filings division, california state seal, fraud alert, live person, official document, sacramento address, scam, ShitList, statement of information