Scam targets Louisiana business owners | NOLA.com

To keep his business in compliance with the state, Randall Tassin of New Orleans was all ready to send in his $125 check. At first glance, the form he'd received in the mail appeared to be from the government: It had an official-looking circular seal in the upper left corner, the state corporate code in capitalized letters and a Baton Rouge address and telephone number.

But Tassin hesitated at a few red flags. The two-week deadline seemed too short, the $125 seemed a bit steep and he didn't remember ever having to send in his corporate minutes to the state or seeing the form, titled "Annual Meeting Disclosure Statement," before.

"It made it seem like you need to do this to keep your business legitimate, and I thought, 'This is just strange,' " said Tassin, the executive vice president of Hydronic Technology in New Orleans. "Even the secretary of state doesn't ask for corporate minutes."

When Tassin called the secretary of state's office to ask about the requirement, he was told that many other businesses had also called in about it and that the whole thing was a scam. The organization sending out the forms, Louisiana Corporate Compliance, had nothing to do with the government.

Louisiana Corporate Compliance charges companies $125 to file forms that the government charges only $25 to process.

"We started getting these calls about six months ago, but all of a sudden over the last two weeks, we've been getting more," said Sailor Jackson Jr., director of communications at the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office. "The only service they're providing is scamming good, tax-paying people out of $100."

When The Times-Picayune called the company's phone number listed on the form to ask what services they provide, the receptionist said, "This is just an answering service, so I can't tell you in detail what we do." She said her supervisor would return the phone call. But the supervisor did not return phone calls.

The attorney general's office launched an investigation into Louisiana Corporate Compliance last week "to determine whether there may be violations of unfair trade practices and consumer protection law and false advertising," said Amanda Larkins, public information officer for the Louisiana Attorney General's Office.

Because the investigation is ongoing, Larkins could not comment about how many complaints have been reported.

The Better Business Bureau has Louisiana Corporate Compliance rated as an "F" on its website because of seven consumer complaints that have gone unattended in the past year.

"Failure to respond to seven complaints in 12 months -- that's some pretty serious stuff," said Dick Mitchell, CEO of the New Orleans Better Business Bureau. "If there were such a thing as a red F [rating], that's what it would be."

A very similar scam has been reported in Ohio, Georgia, Massachusetts, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Texas, Colorado and New York.

Naomi Martin can be reached at nmartin@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3495.

Source: http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2011/09/scam_targets_louisiana_busines.html

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