If you run a business or work with a nonprofit group, you might have received a letter recently from the Business Filings Division, located at 980 9th St., 16th Floor in Sacramento. Although it says "Business Mail - Important Notice Enclosed", underneath that it also says "This is not a government document".

You wouldn't know that by looking at the form that is enclosed. It is an official looking form that looks suspiciously like a form from the California Secretary of State's office and demands that you remit a payment of $235.00 by October 15th! They also include frightening information that says you will face fines and penalties and perhaps even a dreaded suspension.

But at the bottom of the form it also says "THIS PRODUCT OR SERVICE HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY". So why is some business sending you a form and asking for money? Because this is a scam my friends.

A quick check of the California Secretary of State's office website shows that they know of this scam and warn folks to ignore them.
"The Secretary of State's office has been advised that solicitation letters are being sent to California businesses encouraging them to comply with their California Corporations Code filing obligations by submitting fees and documents to a third party rather than by filing directly with the Secretary of State's office. These solicitations are not being made by the California Secretary of State's office and are not being made by or on behalf of any governmental entity."

So who is behind this? That is very difficult to say. A web search of the company name shows hit after hit of other sites which call this company a scam. A phone call to them yielded no answer. But one of the sites showed that a company called Regus rents virtual offices at the address on the envelope, 980 9th Street, 16th Floor. There is a local phone number on their website, but a call there proved fruitless as well.

"It's not my place", said Vickie Bose, a manager at the Regus facility. "I'm not allowed to give out the name of the manager of the Business Filings Division."

Another call to the national office of Regus, located in Dallas, Texas, did not give us any more information on exactly who these Business Filings Division people are. A young man named Sarwat (who wouldn't give his last name) said that they don't divulge information about their clients because of privacy reasons. He gave me another phone number which lead to voice mail hell.

Why can't the company that rents a virtual office to Business Filings Division give us any information? If they are aware of the fact that Business Filings Division is running a scam trying to get scared business owners to pay them money for something that the Secretary of State's office says is unnecessary, why are they renting virtual office space to them?

An email has been sent to their corporate offices as it looks as though that might be the only way to get any information as apparently the Regus Company has given the gag order to all their employees.