NCRC Sure Looks Like a Scam to Me
Not long after registering our LLC, we received a solicitation in the mail from an entity called National Companies Register Corporation (NCRC) asking us to make a payment of $587.00 within the next 14 days. In return, they promised to list our company information on their website at www.companies-register.us (you’ll have to copy/paste to check it out — I’m not giving them a live link). Who cares? Your state maintains the official record of your business, and when I visit NCRC’s site, I’m greeted by nothing more than a login screen with a giant ‘Click Here to Pay’ button.
Let me ask you this… Why would I be interested in having my business listed on their site if the information doesn’t even seem to be publicly accessible? In fact, at the bottom of the solicitation, it says that “You will have access to our online data service by password, which will be sent to you after payment has been received.” Why not at least make their database public so those that get suckered into paying might actually derive some tiny benefit from it? My best guess is that relatively few people have been taken in by their offer, and making a half-empty database publicly viewable wouldn’t be very enticing to potential victims customers.
Interestingly, the National Companies Register Corp. is the subject of a “Consumer-Related Investigation” in the state of Florida. Here’s what they’re accused of:
Mail solicitation that can reasonably be interpreted by consumers as an invoice or statement for goods not yet ordered or services not yet performed that does not contain the required 30 point bold warning mandated by Fla. Statute 817.061.
So… You make the call. Is NCRC a scam? It sure looks like one to me.
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Yeah, I was also pretty mad when I started receiving mailings in general to the business. The comapny that drew up the papers for its formation sold it to who knows how many other places for a buck. Jerks.
Comment by Jesse — Mar 14th 2007 @ 8:01 amWhen I first posted my wife’s business site a few years ago, I started getting unsolicited calls from the Better Business Bureau. The first time I saw who it was, I got worried (she hadn’t even started promoting herself or having clients).
Turns out they just scan the internet for new companies. They wanted me to pay a few hundred dollars to join their network. I saw there was no benefit in it for us so I declined. The woman kept calling back, and she couldn’t understand why I kept answering the phone. She wasn’t the quickest grape on the bunch though.
Comment by Clever Dude — Mar 14th 2007 @ 9:02 amYeah, Punny LLC’s getting stuff from the NCRC and several other scam acronyms. Seriously, maybe we’re in the wrong business and should look into selling links on our sites to other poor, unsuspecting blogs.
Comment by Nick — Mar 14th 2007 @ 9:36 amIt certainly looks like a scam to me.
That being said, its unfortunate nobody has registered it with BugMeNot. I would have been interested to see who had been suckered into paying the fee.
Comment by Blaine Moore — Mar 14th 2007 @ 1:57 pmWe regularly get similar documents from website optimization companies. The pseudo-invoice is a time-honored scam. I’m sure though that in a bigger company’s bureaucracy these kinds of things get paid unthinkingly all the time.
Comment by Daytonscott — Mar 14th 2007 @ 7:10 pmI love a good scam… but they just need one payout to make their entire mail campaign worth it. It’s old school PPC
Comment by jim — Mar 18th 2007 @ 10:16 amIf even Florida (home of many a scam…almost as many as Utah and Nevada) is suspicious of these people, that ought to tell you something.
Until you start selling securities publicly, corporation law in the United States is STRICTLY a state affair. The only “national” thing that small businesses are required to do is pay federal taxes. You don’t have to sign up for any sort of national registry.
Comment by Matt — Mar 21st 2007 @ 12:51 am