Description

Scammer sent letter to our business pretending to the the state of Virginia warning of late fees, penalties and potential business disruption if we didn't send money to them for our annual LLC registration within two weeks. The letter contained a QR code to pay them online as well a form to sign that would give Next Step Filings authorization for something on behalf of our LLC, but it's not stated in the letter exactly what would be authorized with that signature. In fine print, there is a single line of text saying that Next Step Filings is not a government agency, but everywhere else on the form is language implying that the letter is indeed from the state of Virginia. We happen to know what the actual state of Virginia LLC annual registration form looks like and that the actual registration fee is $50 (not the $135 claimed in the letter), and know that we are up-to-date with all our paperwork. Just out of curiosity, I looked up the street address for the scammer and it's a mailbox at storefront shipping business in a strip mall.