By Golly, We've Been Duped!

In most cases we would keep something like this to ourselves, because well- it's SO embarrassing. But in the spirit of keeping an open and honest dialogue about what happens when you start your own business, I thought we'd share this with you so it doesn't happen again to some other poor unsuspecting friends :(

On Saturday morning, Chris and I were having a lovely brunch on the back patio at Zazie with my mom and step dad - talking about the business. I was lamenting the fact that sometimes letters just show up the mail requesting random government fees be paid in relation to the LLC and it is SO annoying. Chris piped up to say that when he worked for his Dad back in the day that their business used to get all kinds of fake letters all of the time -looking official and posing as the government - asking for money. I KNOW - I AM IN THE FUTURE ALSO.
(To quote one stand-up comedian)

Needless to say, when Christine and I met at her house later that day, I told her what Chris had said, and we both had a sinking feeling as we thought of a ridiculous $175 fee we had just paid to the "California Business Collector" AKA the CBC. Even the name sounds slightly suspect. We quickly googled the name and found an entry on the Better Business Bureau's website detailing the scam. Guess what? The CBC has a big fat "F" from the BBB. The Secretary of State website also has a posting about scams and the first one that came up was for letters from the CBC. CRY.

So anyhoo, the moral of the story: When people ask you for money in regards to your business - look it up. It doesn't matter if the form looks all official - it's called photoshop guys ( I am also telling this to myself right now, don't worry).

Hugs,

C+C