Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is warning the state’s business owners about a new scam targeting businesses with a deceptive mailer incorrectly implying that they need a Certificate of Good Standing to operate.
The mailings are coming from an entity calling itself the Business Document Center.
“Our Division of Business and Charitable Organizations and I were recently made aware of yet another company sending out misleading mailers trying to take advantage of Tennessee business owners,” Hargett said in a news release. “These mailers imply that businesses must have a Certificate of Good Standing to operate in Tennessee. A Certificate of Good Standing is not even something that our office offers.”
Hargett said what is often called a Certificate of Good Standing in some other states is known as a Certificate of Existence in Tennessee and neither are necessary to do business in this state.
The most recent version of this scam mailer, titled 2022 Certificate of Status Request Form, tries to get Tennessee business owners to pay $87.25 for the Business Document Center to request a Certificate of Good Standing on their behalf.
A Certificate of Good Standing is not a document available from the secretary of State’s office. The fee the Business Document Center is charging is four times more than the Secretary of State’s office charges…
