Nearly everyone who’s incorporated a business in the United States has been mailed an advertisement attempting to collect some form of fee in exchange for an official-sounding non-service. Going back to filing my first LLC, I’ve gotten letters that look official, trying to collect between $50 up to a few hundred dollars from the new company. These letters always walk the line of claiming to be a government agency, but they are ads. Local media in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania covered one of these business letter grifts back in 2020. The scammers know that a company has just been filed, the name of that company, and the address of that company from public records. That’s a lot of information to make specific creative. A letter to the registered address, using the company name, and the registered contact’s name to demand the purchase of an official-sounding certificate is as specific as it is deceptive. If you’re not bothered by scams targeting businesses, remember not every company is Johnson & Johnson creating a new firm to avoid a judgment. Massive evil firms and others spinning up a labyrinth of LLCs for liability and tax mitigation aren’t falling for this. These scams are hitting mom & pop restaurants, and the artist trying to collect a few thousand dollars a year without handing out a social security number. Online Ads Shenanigans The principles of being deceptive and specific underpinning a business letter extortion racket are easy to implement online. I’ve worked in advertising for over a decade; online…Advertising Scams With MrBeast and Cory Doctorow