so has any1 fell for it? any victims yet to file a lawsuit?

That's really scary. That looks official, and it looks real. And if you're not an expert in the tax system, you could easily just pay the money. The OP knew what she was doing, but the rest of us might not be in such luck. I always, always look at every document that comes through my mailbox, except for obvious spam mail from Cox and Verizon, but anything that looks remotely official, I sift through with a fine-tooth comb.

The only scam mails I've gotten so far have been related to a free plane ticket on an airline that doesn't exist, and an offer to refinance my mortgage - I rent.

How is that even legal?

It looks like they stole the format from the California Franchise Tax Board

The actual value of your property may be exactly 75% of your currently assessed value. All properties in your area were routinely overassessed by 1/3 prior to the passage of Proposition 8.

This runs dangerously close to using the mail to impersonate a legitimate government entity (two seperate crimes,by the way). I am sure that the real tax assesor in this person's county would love to have a little chat with these scamsters before turning this over to the District Attorney's office.

I would not be the least bit surprised if this ends up as a criminal case.

@Quatre707: It's probably not. I doubt scammers care about the legality or morality of their actions.

And here I was thinking Prop 8 was about family values, not property values. Zing!

I had no idea banning same sex marriage affected property values so significantly :)

I'm in San Jose, California and I literally got this exact letter in the mail yesterday. I glanced at it, and then stuck it in my "deal with it this weekend" pile. It looks real enough that it got past my BS detector, at least enough for a second glance.

Well, if you read it closely - they never claim to be representing - um - anything - just 'property tax reassessment.' I'm pretty sure that there's a 'caveat' that goes like - 'make sure you read the thing throughly' - before you pay for something that you can do yourself for free.

They open themselves up to liability if they impersonate an official office or use their letterhead, etc. etc.

A guy can follow you in a dark (or light) colored domestic sedan - motioning for you to pull over. He's up for arrest if he impersonate an officer by flashing a fake badge or ids himself as such and he's not. Until then, he's just a guy in a car.

I DO hate these bottom feeders tho.

I got this one too. The remit envelope is light green, just like the envelope you have to use for paying your real property taxes. Evil!

I got this too.
I don't think it is necessarily bogus, but just a way to capitalize on people not knowing how to appeal their property values.

Overall it is not a hard process nor is it difficult to find on the web. But most people are too intimidated so there is a chance for "legitimate" companies to offer their services, albeit for a very large profit.

I went to the Santa Clara Assessor's office:
[www.sccassessor.org]
From there I saw the link to Assessment Appeals
[tinyurl.com]

There it says:
Assessment Appeals

Please note that beginning July 2nd, 2007 there is a $30 filing fee for each assessment appeal application.
Assessment Appeals is an independent function, separate from the Assessor's Office, established to decide disputes between the Assessor's Office and property owners.
Important Dates for Property Owners

January 1 - The lien date for the assessment of property on the assessment roll is 12:01 AM, on January 1 of each year.
February 15 - Legal deadline to file timely exemption claims for homeowner, veteran, disabled veteran, cemetery, church, college, and welfare exemptions.
April 1 - Deadline to file Business Property Statements.
April 10 - Last day to pay second installment of secured property taxes without penalty.
July 1 - Assessment Roll delivered to the County Controller.
August 31 - Last day to pay unsecured taxes without penalty.
July 2 - September 15 - Period for filing application for assessment appeal hearing with the Clerk of the Appeals Board.
December 10 - Last day to pay first installment of secured property taxes without penalty, and deadline to file a late exemption for homeowners and veterans.

On the left there is a link to:
Assessment Appeal Filing & Application FAQ:
[tinyurl.com]

So there is a $30 filing fee.

Seems like the postal inspector should be notified.

I got one of these yesterday and my wife flipped. She thought it was real and that we had lost over $100,000 on our house in 2 months. To be fair, I was fooled too until I read the fine, fine, fine print that said they were not a government agency.

I still want to head down to L.A. and kick the company President in the sack, tho.

@the_gank: "Any1"? Really?

@RogueSophist: Beat me to it. Thank you!

I don't for a second deny that this is probably a sleazy operation. But I don't see where they broke any law here. They have a clearly worded disclaimer that states that they are not a government agency. They are offering to provide a service in exchange for money. And if you read the letter, that should be clear.

The fact that they want to charge what some people would consider an unreasonably high amount of money for something you could do for yourself isn't illegal.

Has anyone checked to see if they have provided services to anyone and whether or not they have been successful advocates? This is no different than law firms who send out letters to people who got traffic tickets offering to get them a lower fine or point reduction in traffic court. Most people may be able to do this without an attorney.

But an attorney who practices in traffic court and solicits for clients by mail isn't breaking the law. This letter is no different. Some may call it sleazy. But it doesn't break the law.

If you own a property worth over one million dollars, as the OP in this letter, one would presume they should be savvy enough to recognize an over-priced offer when they see it.

I received this very same letter. Since house prices are pretty high in Cali a reduction in property tax is a very tasty. I got as far as putting postage on the envelope before I realized (thanks to asking some friends about it) that it was a scam. Yet another reason to read the fine print.

BTW, the form they say they will file is available from your county (LA has it as a PDF) and it is one sheet. Really easy to fill out. Let me dig for a linky...
[assessor.lacounty.gov]

I went through the work of figuring out if I thought I would get anything reduced. Turns out that people are still foolishly buying houses in my neighborhood. Good luck to the rest of you.

My boss just got a similar thing at work. It said "Form 1040-XL585 (or something like that), and it was some mortgage refinancing thing. Shredded.

It was the presorted standard postmark that tipped me off as a possible scam. Not sure if it's illegal, but it's certainly misleading and predatory.

I love how they included Prop. 8, If I lived in California and saw that I'd be wondering how much pork that proposition had in it.

@Robert Biro:

I am surprised at the filing fee. I work an Assessor's Office in California, and as far as I know the only time that you have to pay the fee is when you want a written finding of the results of your appeals hearing. You only need the written finding in case the appeals hearing did not go your way and you desire to take it to civil court, otherwise the process if free.

I would never expect a bill like that to come to me via email. If I get a bill in email that I don't expect, I assume it's spam and move on. If it's a real bill, the company knows how to find me.

OOPS- my bad. I see this is about regular mail, not the email spam people have been getting asking for payments. Yes, an official looking piece of snailmail could fool many (especially new homeowners).

@wickedpixel: I had no idea, either!

Damn me for getting married! Not only did I manage to destroy heterosexual marriages, but I also affected property values!!

@Nick1693: Wasn't that the gay marriage measure?

Yikes!

Are the property values in each letter accurate? How do they get this information? I guess it's publicly available. (Not a property owner, so I don't know.)

If you own a property worth over one million dollars, as the OP in this letter, one would presume they should be savvy enough to recognize an over-priced offer when they see it.

Oh, well, my house is only worth $300,000 -- am I stupid enough to fall fall for this?

You can't judge the morality and appropriateness of something by whether it's illegal or not, as laws only get created for the most egregious examples.

Clearly, this was designed to skirt by the letter of the law, while convincing people it is a mandatory bill (the late fee is only one of the most convincing parts of this letter.)

Incidentally, I got one of these as well. Everyone I know with a house did. And I am absolutely certain that a lot of people for whom English is a second language (remember, we're talking about LA) have fallen for this.

@dragonfire81: Yeah, is there some other "Proposition 8" that has bearing on this? Because I can't imagine that there's anyone in California who hasn't heard of Prop 8. Wouldn't everybody's first question when reading this thing be "What does Prop 8 have to do with property taxes?"

It's actually Prop 8 from 1978, which allows for property values to be reassessed because of economic conditions.

http://holmes.uchastings.edu/cgi-bin/starfinder/1571/calprop.txt

@drdom:It's just like those scam magazine subscription renewals everyone gets. They look like a bill, say it is to renew your subscription. But you never subscribed to that magazine and they charge 2-3 times what it costs to get a real subscription. They also state in small print they are not associated with the publisher, but it is still fraud.
This document would not be hard to prove in court, it is definetly designed to decieve or scam the tax payer. That's all that would be required.

@the_gank: No 1's fell for it, but I hear that some 5's and a couple of 8's are trying to get class action status...

@pollyannacowgirl: Comps

@drdom: The post called the ad "disguised, scam, and fake". Nowhere did it say the ad broke the law or was illegal. A savvy consumer would read more carefully than you. Way to completely miss the point.

Pay them with Monopoly money. Fake cash for fake bills is the right thing to do!

I'm gonna buck the trend and say that this is really not that bad. Think about it, if they are right, you could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Most people are pretty ignorant on this stuff, and if they follow through on their promise (and I said IF) it could be a very good investment.

Of course you can do it yourself, but do you know how? Do you have the forms? The appraisal? The time?

I see $179.00 as a pretty good investment IF they follow through on their promise.

Now, of course if it's just a ploy to get your money and do nothing, that's reprehensible.

These are hitting our county too. There was a front page article in the local paper on Thursday.

This is 1978 Proposition 8 they are referring to. Since 2008, California recycles proposition numbers on a ten year cycle.

This is how they are supposed to advertise for services: [www.prop8pros.com]
[www.prop8.org]

Not by mailing official looking junk mail to the house. There are mandatory disclaimers required on every piece of reassessment junk mail but they make it as unobvious as possible.

@WorldHarmony: What? Where did she say it was email? It even specifically says "Came in the mail" "She scanned it", etc.

The vast numbers of people buying into the NINA loans to buy an overpriced house shows that there are a lot of suckers out there.

These scumballs are just another aspect of the bottom feeders that we have to watch out for.

Our education system totally fails in teaching basic finance and common sense to the general public. We would not be in the current crisis mode if more people were smart enough to see that they can't win with a No Income No Assets loan for a house that is not worth the amount of the loan.

Call the number, it says it's a private company. I did. Then leave them a message. "Last name spelled: M-a-n-g-i-n-a. First name: Harold. Call me at # and please ask for Harry."

Or I might be immature.

The thing that really scares me about something like this, and I'm sure it's happened to someone, would be if my mom got something like that. My mom who pays her bills the day she gets them, would pay that in a second, wouldn't even question the validity. Just send the check and not even think twice about it.

I shudder because this scam will work on quite a few, actually a ton of people.

Time to call my mom........

@nytmare: Maybe he is referring to the 20+ posts above talking about how the letter is probably illegal? Don't be a jackass.

@pecan pi:

I hate crap like this.

All of this official looking junk, packaged in envelopes that don't even name the sender.

/sending out mail without listing who the mail is coming from should be illegal.

/I got one of those, but I shredded it :P

I remember getting this mail in November. Prior to this letter I didn't know how any of this property tax assessment thing worked. I thought the letter was a little fishy so I called the LA couty assessors office and asked them about it. The lady told me that it is a third party company trying to charge people for something you could do on your own. So I downloaded the application from their web site and sent it in. I saved a little over a $1000 due to it! And I didn't have to give some lame company $179! I don't like this "property tax assessment" company but I thank them for showing me that there was a way to save some money... on my own..!

BTW. They haven't stopped sending me those damn letters.. I got my 4th one so far today!

I got one of these today too...stupid junk mail a-holes.

There should be stricter and more inclusive rules about what mail must be stamped with "Advertising" clearly on the envelope.

I believe solicitations from lawyers (such as after you've gotten a ticket) usually are, but I don't know if it's required, or just industry standard.

But something, before they just start -really- sending out the Government forms and not even pretending to follow the law anymore.

Same thing (on a lesser level) with those Advertisement pages in magazines... the word "advertisement" somewhere at the top just gets smaller and smaller.