Scams

There’s nothing new about scam artists and hustlers contaminating the business world. The truth is, they even show up in Oregon from time to time.

The Oregon Corporation Division is especially wary of these cons because sometimes they’re designed to look like documents that come from the state when in fact they’re only new ways to illegally separate a business from its money.

“They’re always out there,” said Peter Threlkel, head of the Corporation Division. “They run a pretty regular business, like the 0ld emails for the Nigerian bank scam. But remember, these guys don’t need a lot of people to fall for it for them to make some money. Then they disappear.”

Two familiar scams from recent years include the annual corporate minutes scam and the annual report renewal scam. Both have been seen in Oregon in past years – but not now — and business owners should keep their eyes open. Here’s how they work.

The annual corporate minutes scam arrives in the mail looking as if it came from a government agency.  The solicitation warns of penalties and legal consequences for failure to comply and asks business owners to complete a form and pay a fee of up to hundreds of dollars. But corporate minutes are not filed with the Secretary of State, they are internal records for the corporation only.

Here’s how the annual report scam works. Businesses registered with the Secretary of State are required to file an annual report and pay a fee each year to keep their business registration active. (Assumed business names renew every 2 years.) In this scam, a solicitation warns of the pending expiration of an assumed business name and offers to prepare and file all documents needed to renew the business name for $100. Click here to see a recent example of this solicitation.

You can always check the validity of a mailing by calling the Corporation Division at 503-986-2200 or by going to www.filinginoregon.com/scam_alert to learn more about these scams and find out what legitimate state mailings really look like.

Small businesses are particularly vulnerable because they often don’t have the resources or the time of large company to devote to scams. But all companies, big and small, should be wary. They’ll save  themselves a lot of money and a lot of heartache.

Identity theft is a real problem as well. The Federal Trade Commission set the cost of identity theft to U.S. businesses at $48 billion a year. Last summer, 41 states, including Oregon, reached a $9.75 million settlement with the parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls over a data breach that exposed 94 million credit and debit card numbers to hackers.

More and more, it’s businesses being victimized by identity thieves. The scams are sometimes quite simple. One involves a criminal who rents space in your building. He then applies for corporate credit cards in your firm’s name and they’re issued because the company name and address check out. The  cards are delivered to his mailbox, not yours, he sells them on the street and leaves town and your credit is wrecked.

The economy is making things tough enough without crooks sneaking in to steal your money. Be extra careful.