DA Warns Santa Cruz County Businesses About Scam

Santa Cruz County prosecutors issued a warning about a Sacramento company allegedly misleading businesses in a scam involving the renewal of fictitious business names.

Fictitious Business Name Renewal Center, a private Sacramento company whose true name is Compliance Filings Inc., is charging Santa Cruz County businesses as much as $110 more than the county clerk’s office to renew fictitious business names, according to the district attorney’s office.

The company acquires business names and addresses through public records and mails them documents appearing to imitate government documents, leading many businesses to assume they are from the county clerk’s office.

The Santa Cruz County Clerk’s Office accepts fictitious name statements and charges $40 plus $7 for each additional business name and owner, prosecutors said.

Fictitious name statements are renewable every five years for the same price. There is no reason to pay any other business entity to fill out paperwork for fictitious name renewals, according to the district attorney’s office.

Fictitious business names can be renewed at the county clerk’s office at 701 Ocean St., Room 210. Applications may be found online at www.sccoclerk.com.

--Bay City News

--Image via Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office