Over the weekend I received the following letter in the mail from UST Development, Inc.:
I had no idea who this company was, or why I owed them money. Nevertheless, my first reaction was to assume that the invoice must somehow be related to one of the contractors I've had work on my house during the past year -- and that I should therefore probably pay it. But then my more suspicious instincts kicked in, and I decided to google the company.
The first result that popped up was
scaminformer.com, on which quite a few people were reporting having received the identical letter -- even though no one had ever heard of this company before, or done any business with them.
This company is evidently hoping that some people will simply pay the phony invoice without bothering to check it out first. And they're probably right.
I noticed that the invoice says: "Thank you for your business. This is not a statement for services rendered but for preventative maintenance."
The company probably hopes that this weasel phrasing provides them with some legal protection. Although I'm sure that the only preventative maintenance that would be achieved by paying them would be to prevent their bank account from getting lower.
I've already filed a complaint with the California Attorney General about the invoice. And, of course, I'm posting about it here to help spread the word.
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