So for anyone who has applied or gone through the process of opening and filing their own paper work for a small business they know there is a lot of different papers and forms that need to be filled out, signed, and filed with their state government.  A lot of these forms you have to pay different fees to get processed.  You kind of get immune to all the forms.

However, just recently I received this letter and from in the mail from the “Board of Business Center” asking me to “remit payment: $175.”  When I first saw this I was like “what!  More forms and bills to pay?”  But then I was mentally going through my checklist of stuff to see if indeed this was something I needed to pay…but thought something was very fishy for several reasons:

• It was from the Board of Business Center — all the forms I had received up till now were always from the California Secretary of State, this was some state-less Board of Business Center.
• The address (PO Box 39876, Los Angeles CA 90039) I was supposed to send payment was LA — all of the small business stuff is handled in Sacramento, the capital, why send to LA?
• The fine print on the back of the form — the back says “upon receipt of your payment Board of Business Center will deliver the Statement of Information to the Office of California Secretary of State in a timely manner with the State Fees.  Luckily I had just sent my Statement of Information so why would they need to deliver this again for me?

All these little clues just tipped me off to the fact that this thing was some kind of scam.  So I finally googled it and found a very similar looking letter, but for a different document that needs to be filed with the State.

According to the link above I posted one of the commenters works for the California Attorney General’s office and is investigating these scammers.  If you run across a similar letter as the one I posted you’re urged to contact them.  Info below:

Complaints may be filed with the California Attorney General’s Office by mail, telephone, fax, the Internet, or email:

MAILING ADDRESS:

Attorney General’s Office
California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550TELEPHONE:   1-800-952-5225 (Toll-free in CA) or (916) 322-3360

FAX:   (916) 323-5341

WEBSITE:   http://ag.ca.gov/consumers

In the spirit of sharing and hoping that someone googles the scam letter I got so they don’t lose out $175 I’ve posted scans of the letter I’ve received and made a post here.  The things people will do to make a buck.

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In case you don’t believe me checkout the email’s I received (I’ve crossed out the winning reference numbers since I don’t want you claiming prize)…Ok really do people really fall for this stuff?

From:     jmitchell@qcc.mass.edu
Subject:     Dear Inernet User
Date:     July 23, 2009 12:32:36 AM PDT

Dear Inernet User

We are pleased to notify you the “Winner” of our Internet Lotto draws. This is a reward program for the patronage of internet services and all email addresses entered for this promotional draws were randomly selected from an internet resource database of of registered software and domain users.

Reference Number: NLS 90 EU 1109
e-ticket number: 765-45556453 098
Category: A
Amount: $2,500,000.00 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars)

You may wish to establish contact with your claims agent via e-mail with the particulars presented below:

CLAIMS AGENT.
Name: Thomas Ward
Tel::+31 619 551 210
Email: dptclnl2009@yahoo.cn

In line with the governing rules of claim, you are requested to furnish your claims agent With the following information:

1. Full names
2. Address
3. Occupation.
4. Tel/Fax
5. Nationality
6.  Winning Reference Number

Yours faithfully,
John Mitchell
Promotions Co-ordinator

John really should use spell check…I’m not an “Inernet” user!

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