I wanted to let the internet know and spread the word of a scam that is targeting small business’s in Oregon. I got a letter today from a “Corporate Regulatory Committee” in Salem, Oregon but really this is a scam. They ask for $238 in order to file an annual report to the Secretary of State according to Oregon statute 60.787. Being in busisness for years I know that I’ve been sent a letter directly from the secretary of state of Oregon asking for me to update my LLC license and for the renewal fee’s.  This company, “Corporate Regulatory Committee”, is just trying to capitalize on something that isn’t needed and looks official to scare business’s into doing this.
As any informed business should do I did a Google search. At first I didn’t see any thing about it but hidden down a few listings was a post from the John Gear Law Office. In their post they also point out that this is a scam and to not send any money to this company. The original post is here. Maybe the “Corporate Regulatory Committee” shouldn’t have sent a law firm a scam letter 🙂
Taken directly from the State of Oregon’s website is a quote from Oregon 60.787. ” The Secretary of State shall mail the annual report form to any address shown for the corporation in the current records of the office. ”
I really don’t like these letters. I get them all the time from domain registry companies. They look official, they scare the business into doing something that they don’t need to do, they cost business’s thousands of dollars a year (if not millions, overall), and they are a waste of time.
thank you for posting this, I got the same letter today.Since I do not make any money I did not do anything else except $100 for renewal fee. I thought I got fine because I thought I lack of experience. Then I found your web, again thank you for posting this scam.
Hey Adam,
I received the letter too, and first said “shit” , then “wait a second, maybe this is a scam”, then search “Oregon Corporate Regulatory Committee Scam” and found your blog entry. Thanks for posting, as it will help a lot of folks avoid a $238 mistake.
And all of us need to call the attorney general’s office and let them know about these fuckers.
@Ken Thanks for the comment Ken! I searched Google too (like any business owner should) and saw that the post that had told me it was a scam wasn’t very optimized for people to find it when searching. I’m a search engine optimization professional (web design geek really) so I knew others might not see the other post (which I linked to). Hence my post is filled with the keywords of the letter throughout so that people can find it and save themselves some dough.
I agree with calling the attorney generals office but it sounds like they already know of it. It’s one of those things where they probably get things like this all the time and with resources tight it’s probably not the easiest thing for them to track down the people, pull the PMB (personal mailbox) of the address, and fix the problem. The solution to me was to tell the world! Glad you found it and hoping that many others will too.
I help small business’s in Oregon with their marketing all day long and will be telling my clients to not believe this letter!
Thanks so much posting this. I also received this letter today.
Hi Adam,
Thanks for the heads up. The first thing that set off alarms was the amount, the date it is being sent and then the form itself and it really did looked suspicious from the beginning.
I am glad there are people like yourself with such honest and altruistic tendencies! The sad thing is that many people will not even question this scam and fork over the money to such lowlife parading as officiants.
I believe the more of us that alert the offices of the secretary of state the better. It is illegal and they are also blatantly using the name of said federal entity which is itself illegal.
Cheers anyway !
@Ari
No problem. It’s sad to see these but it’s better to be an informed business!
@Business Owner
No problem. Glad to help out a fellow business owner!
@Micheal
Glad to have helped out and pointed it out to the rest.
It sounds like a legitimate government entity but if it was I’m sure they would pop up really easily on a Google search.
Adam
Thanks for the heads up. When I received the letter I questioned the billing since I had already paid my renewal fee and my tax attorney never informed me of such a cost. Hopefully these scoundrels will be caught and prosecuted. Jerks like this need to pay their dues. I will blog today on my website to inform other businesses and llc’s.
Adam –
Thank you so much for posting this! I am a brand new business (I just opened my doors last week!) and was freaking out about this. “More money? Already? Really? Seriously? Jeez…”
I am so glad I found your post. I am going to re-post on my Facebook page so that other small businesses don’t fall for this. It’s too bad that some will.
Thanks again!
Meighan
Thanks! I go this letter today too. Very sneaky.
Thank you for the post, I thought this seemed fishy. So many scams out there, really gotta watch it.
I received this letter today and wondered why I had to have payment to them by the end of January to process for my June renewal. Then I read the document carefully and found numerous typos and spelling/grammar errors. That’s when I decided to research it and at least call to verify it’s validity and point out the unprofessional errors in the letter. That’s when I saw your post…thanks Adam! You saved our small business $238.
My boss got this yesterday as well. I just scanned it to forward to his attorney because he handles all of his corporate matters then I started reading the form. It is absolutely full of typos, incorrect punctuation and horrendous English. That’s when I realized it wasn’t legitimate.
Great job, Adam!
I am so glad you posted this scam. I was thinking about getting my checkbook out to pay this, but as I read the letter closely, I found many grammatical errors and typos. Also, the address looked a little suspicious. I did a google search on the address and it was a strip mall…again suspicious. I was relieved to see your blog. Thank you again!
Stan
I also wanted to thank you for posting about this scam. I’m so angry! I want these people to get caught!
Thanks Adam. I’ll simply echo others’ responses: your post was calming and valuable in discerning the truth about this one. Thanks again. -Ben
Thank you for publishing this warning. Instead of sending a check, I gained satisfaction by including a note that said “Nice try, a–hole” in the return envelope instead. Ha!
THANK YOU for making it easy for me to determine this is a scam. I was skeptical. I am going to notify the district attorney of the scam.
I got the same thing on Jan 23, it said I had to return the form and money by Jan 31.
I bet there are several companies that just paid.
@anne
I’m sure there are many that, unfortunately, fell for this and sent them money. I’ve heard this guy is running this scam in other states as well…