Ways to Spot a BOI Report Scam

Did you recently receive a notice regarding the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report? As a part of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), the BOI Report is a means of collecting business entity ownership information to increase transparency and decrease the occurrence of financial crimes.

With all kinds of information about this report circulating, it’s easy to fall prey to opportunistic companies and scammers looking to capitalize on the confusion. While completing the BOI Report is a requirement for most businesses, that doesn’t mean shelling out hundreds of dollars or risking your sensitive data. Here are some key signs to watch out for to make sure you don’t overpay for your report or fall victim to scams.

How scammers reach business owners

Third parties looking to coerce you into hiring them to file your BOI Report and scammers looking to farm your data have developed intelligent ways to obtain your contact information. By scrubbing official state sites and social media, many of them are able to reach out to you directly. Here are some common ways you’ll be reached by these parties:

• Email – Some companies are able to snag your personal or business email from your website to reach out to you directly. They’ll often use this channel to attach links or files that could allow them to install malware on your device. Pro tip: consider a contact form on your site rather than listing your email address, this can help deter some of the lazier scammers.
• Mail – If you listed your own address as the mailing address for your business on any state sites or formation documents, instead of using a registered agent, that’s easy pickings for scammers. Once your address is available to them, these parties will send letters and notices referencing the BOI Report to drive you to contact them or visit their website.
• Phone – Similar to mailing addresses, your personal or business phone number is sometimes available on public websites or through data brokers for scammers to use as they will. Similar to many other cold-call scams, these individuals and entities will reach out directly with just enough information to convince you that they’re legit. If you aren’t careful, one phone call can allow them to steal your data and attract future scammers.

Even if you’re sticking to all the best privacy practices, there’s still a chance scammers and filing services can reach out to you. Watch out for notices coming through the above channels, and know the requirements and penalties related to the BOI Report so you aren’t fooled or scared into making rash moves. FinCEN has also done a great job of updating the BOI Report page on their website with any reported scams, so make sure to check that out if you’re in doubt.

Signs a BOI Report notice might be a scam

Although a notice you received might look legitimate, don’t trust your first glance. The senders are probably betting on your lack of research. By using company names and logos that appear reasonably official, these third parties are hoping to deceive you into confusing them with government agencies. To give you an example, here’s a sketchy notice one Redditor received in their mailbox, which utilizes some of these confusing tactics:

The letter looks official enough to fool you into believing the sender is a government entity. But, visiting the linked website takes you to a third-party charging an exorbitant fee to file your report for you.

Non-government websites

If you receive a letter or email from a company or individual you aren’t familiar with, review any URLs you’re presented with before you click on them. Hovering over a hyperlink will allow you to view the entire link without exposing yourself to dangerous website. If you’re not being directed to a website ending in .gov, it’s likely a third party business looking to be hired to file the BOI Report. While using a third-party for this report isn’t necessarily a bad thing, paying $200 to $500 for each filing is ridiculous and unnecessary.

Scare tactics

As you can see, this notice purposefully leads with aggressive language describing the mandatory BOI Report filing, and the mention of a $500 daily late penalty for failure to file. While this fee is technically correct, and the report is mandatory for most businesses, these are only mentioned to elicit an emotional reaction and drive you towards their website and service without thinking through your options.

Attempts to look official

This letter features several official-looking elements that are meant to confuse:

• a prominent seal atop the page that mimics the seal of FinCEN, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
• the name of the sender is Fincen Alliance, which is an intentionally misleading riff off of FinCEN.
• company name and formation date are included in an attempt to establish credibility. However, this information is easily attainable by running a business name search on most state websites.

We might be splitting hairs here, but they didn’t even appropriately capitalize the FinCEN acronym. That’s just sloppy.

Safeguard your information

The BOI Report is something that should be on your radar, but don’t let scammers and sketchy companies fear-monger you into divulging your personal information or overpaying for your report. Aside from spending hundreds of dollars to file a report you can complete yourself, even beginning to fill out order forms on sites belonging to companies like this can lead to your information being fed to nefarious characters. Remember to do your due diligence if you receive notices regarding your business, and don’t feed the scammers trying to trick busy business owners.

While Northwest is happy to provide you resources and documents to DIY most business filings, our BOI Report filing service is a simple and cost effective option for those looking to have their BOI Report handled on their behalf. Additionally, our Mail Forwarding service is available in several states, and features free junk-mail filtering to prevent sketchy notices from getting to you in the first place. Reach out to us today if you have questions!