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California LLC Statement of Information scam

:: Friday, October 2nd, 2009 @ 4:21:57 pm

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I almost was fooled by this one. Wetpixel received an urgent notice from the “Business Filings Division” today stating that we had to submit a Statement of Information in order to continue doing business in California (LLCs have to file one every 2 years). The fee? $239.00

I filled out the form and wrote a check, but something didn’t seem right, and I went to Google for help. It turns out that this is a common scam that quite a few people fall for. Through official channels, the actual fee for filing is $20.

Here’s the fraudulent form: (download)


fraudulent statement of information form

… and here’s the actual form (Form llc-12, which you can download from the Secretary of State):


actual statement of information form

Bastard scammers.

| San Francisco, CA | link | trackback | Oct 2, 2009 16:21:57
  • http://www.davidpatchen.com dave patchen

    I’d treat you to the $5 stamp to send them a Priority mail box full of dog crap. Really, you should do it. Assholes.

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    Dave — that is a GREAT idea!!

  • Don Fenning

    I got this same mailing recently. I almost fell for it, but their effort at creating state seal, and no official state address made this look really odd.

    WHile it is not quite dog crap, I sent them their form filled in with my own comments and expletives ….

    These scammers disgust me.

  • krista

    Total bullshit. In a time of serious repression – depression, this kind of scam can hit companies hard. I almost paid the darn thing and realized i already had done so with the state. thank you so much for posting this scam information. you saved me 235.00 bucks. I really should be sending you a tip but i can’t even afford that. small contracting in california is in the dumps. thanks again. kk

  • Glau

    While these scams are clearly bullshit, it’s also bullshit that we should have to pay the state of CA every year this ‘junk fee’ in the first place.

    As near as I can tell this “Statement of Information” serves no productive purpose other than getting $25 from every business operating in CA once per year.

  • Hewesenterprises

    Think $25 is bad?  Check out Nevada’s fees. Over $300 a year for their statement fee plus business license renewal, and if you want to make ANY changes to your corporation (name, etc) it’s $175.00.  It costs about the same to do biz in Nevada as it does California with it’s crappy $800 FTB minimum tax.  I was stoked to see CA’s annual filing is only $25.  All it does is make sure your corp’s info is up-to-date.

    Glad to find this scam warning, though.  I’m newly inkd in cali…
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