If you are the owner of an Oregon business entity such as a corporation or limited liability company, you may have recently received an official-looking notice from a “Corporate Regulatory Committee” demanding payment of $238.00 to file your Oregon corporate annual report.
According to the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, this notice is a scam. In a telephone conversation with our office, a representative from the Attorney General’s Consumer Hotline confirmed that it has received numerous calls from concerned Oregon business owners over the last few days regarding this notice. The Attorney General’s office did not indicate whether or not they will be undertaking enforcement actions against this company.
Buried in the language of the notice is the easy-to-miss statement: “This service has not been approved or endorsed by any government agency and this offer is not being made by any agency of the government.” A search of the send-to address (1118 Lancaster Drive #369 in Salem, OR) reveals a private postal service center, not a legitimate business storefront.
If you have already sent payment to this “Corporate Regulatory Committee,” the Consumer Protection department of the DOJ requests that you complete a “Consumer Complaint Form”. You can complete this form on-line, or print and mail to the Oregon Department of Justice. As there is no assurance that this company will actually complete the Oregon annual report filing as promised, one should also visit the Oregon Secretary of State’s website prior to the annual report’s due date to ensure that the report has been properly filed. If the annual report is not timely filed, your company could be administratively dissolved under Oregon law.
If you have not sent payment but have questions about this scam, you can call the Attorney General’s Consumer Hotline:
503-378-4320 from Salem
503-229-5576 from Portland (toll free)
1-877-877-9392 elsewhere in Oregon (toll free)
