Iowa officials halt government look-alike scam

Two Iowa elected state officials announced Wednesday they had teamed up to stop a look-alike scam by a California man that attempted to “dupe” Iowa businesses into paying $125 for a bogus government document fee.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, and Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a Republican, said they believe they successfully exposed the scam and intercepted 270 checks totaling about $33,000 that were en route to “Iowa Corporate Compliance.” State officials successfully got a court order to seize the letters containing checks written by Iowa businesses from a Des Moines post office box to the alleged perpetrator who effectively attempted to steal the state of Iowa's identity.

Miller and Schultz held a joint news conference to announce that a Polk County judge had issued a temporary injunction barring Aaron Vincent Williams of Playa Vista, Calif., who was doing business as Iowa Corporate Compliance, from misleading consumers or violating the Iowa consumer fraud act through solicitations that appear to be from a government entity. The letters had a bogus but official-looking seal and letterhead that Miller said created “the aura” and “the look” of a government document.

“It's a look-alike deception,” the attorney general said, noting that the letter seeking the phony state fee carried a disclaimer near the bottom indicating it was not associated with any governmental agency of held any official standing. He urged Iowa businesses to “read the fine print” on any correspondence or notice purporting to be soliciting a required state “document fee” that does not exist.

“This government agency look-alike is targeting business people across Iowa with official-looking mailings, and convincing them that they must complete and return a form with a $125 fee,” Miller said. “We allege that these documents are not worth anything more than the paper they're printed on.”

Schultz said his office began fielding calls in June from businesses complaining that they had received a bogus “annual meeting disclosure statement” and a required $125 fee, which aroused suspicion for him because any documents that must be filed with the secretary of state can be found on the website for his office.

“While state law requires businesses to keep records of certain meeting minutes, the law does not require businesses to file those minutes with us. Neither do we collect a fee for this type of filing,” said Schultz, who called the $125 charge “exorbitant.”

Working with the U.S. Postal Service, state officials were able to intercept the “Iowa Corporate Compliance” mail bound for California and recover the checks that were accumulating in the post office box but had not yet been forwarded. None of the checks were cashed and Miller believes the scam was halted before any businesses lost any money in the alleged scheme. The attorney general's lawsuit seeks refunds for any Iowa consumer losses, a permanent court injunction, and a penalty of up to $40,000 for each consumer fraud act violation.

State officials were uncertain where the California man got a mailing list for Iowa corporations.