Three letters or emails to toss immediately

Having a business is tough, especially when for-profit businesses pose as government agencies to scare you into buying stuff you don’t need for exorbitant prices.

Here are a few things to ignore:

1. Labor law posters. Often shortly after filing their Articles of Incorporation or Articles of Organization, companies get solicitations that say “Compliance Notice. Your business is required by Federal Law to post a current compliant labor law notice in the workplace.” They then offer to sell you posters for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Here is where you can get them for free:

NC:https://www.labor.nc.gov/safety-and-health/publications/state-and-federal-workplace-poster-requirements/free-ncdol-labor-law-poster-order-form

US: https://www.dol.gov/whd/resources/posters.htm

PS: you don’t need them until you have employees.

2. Trademark renewal notices. US Federal trademarks need to be renewed every 10 years (These would be Section 8 and 9 affidavits). The filing fee is currently $525.00 per trademark per class for both filings combined. There is another set of trademark maintenance documents that must be filed between years 5 and 6 to show you have not abandoned your trademark (Section 8 and Section 15 affidavits). The current filing fee for this is $425.00 per trademark per class.

Many of our clients get offers from third parties with official sounding names to make these filings for thousands of dollars. Often these letters/emails do not accurately reflect the trademark status or types of filings required. The US Patent and Trademark Office does not mail reminders. They will email your attorney. They may be called compliance fees or compliance companies. For more information: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-getting-started/caution-misleading-notices.

3. Corporate Transparency Act filing notices. While the Corporate Transparency Act does indeed require reporting companies to file Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) by specified deadlines (see here), scammers are sending fraudulent emails and letters from entities with official-sounding names and mimicking official government correspondence. They are attempting to steal your company’s private information. Fraudulent notices may reference Form 4022 or Form 5102. They may call themselves the “US Business Regulations Dept.” None of these exist.

These scams use intimidating language and official-sounding names to solicit sensitive information or payments from business owners. The scammers aim to create urgency, often threatening recipients of civil penalties for failure to meet fictitious deadlines. While there are indeed stiff penalties for willful violation of the CTA, accidentally missing a filing deadline should not trigger these penalties.

Please be on the lookout for anything that may indicate correspondence you receive is fraudulent. For example, be cautious of any of the following:

• Correspondence requesting payment. There is NO fee to file BOI directly with FinCEN. FinCEN does NOT send correspondence requesting payment to file BOI. Do not send money in response to any mailing regarding filing your beneficial ownership information report that claims to be from FinCEN or another government agency.

• Correspondence that asks the recipient to click on a suspicious URL or to scan a suspicious QR code. Those e-mails or letters could be fraudulent. Do not click any suspicious links or attachments or scan any suspicious QR codes.

• Correspondence regarding penalties. FinCEN does NOT send initial correspondence regarding CTA penalties via e-mail or over the phone. Do not submit payments via phone, mail, or websites as requests/directions to do so are fraudulent.