Title image above is copyright © Optimate Group Pty Ltd

First published 21st February 2026

Do you have a registered business? If so there’s every chance some oxygen-stealer has sent you something like this:.


Rip-Off/Borderline Scam: Any letter from Online Business Registration

 

Chuck it! Or if you’re like me, avail yourself of the free printing paper! (Why waste yours, eh?)

“Kur” — you just have to laugh. Cur (British English): 2. a despicable or cowardly person

And what kind of address is that anyway?

Here are all the similar business names they operate under.

They must have been cracked down on hard some years ago (only to resurface under different name(s)), because originally these letters did not make it clear that they were in no way associated with ASIC. Nowadays they do state this quite clearly as can be seen.

What they are doing is technically not illegal, but they are still using deceptive and misleading tactics, and this is why I call this outright a borderline scam — avoid them like the plague!

How Does it Work?

They know via publically-available records when a business name is due for renewal, and send these letters out about four months in advance, and way ahead of any legitimate notifications from ASIC, which come out 30 days in advance.

(That they send them via letter at all these days shows how much they must cream from this. Though come to think of it, I don’t recall ever receiving a plain black and white one on 70 gsm paper before. Past ones have been full colour on 90 gsm paper at least.)

Worse, they state the business name is due for renewal a full month before the actual renewal date. This alone is highly misleading and highly deceptive.

On top of that, they charge far in excess to renew your own business name over what ASIC charges should you do it yourself via ASIC’s own site. This is not illegal — it is what any agent acting on behalf of another would do for time and services rendered (within reason — what this mob charge really is excessive).

What they are doing isn’t front-running per se, but very loosely modelled on that practice.

A busy person, or one not paying attention (usually the same thing) sees this letter as a quick and convenient way to renew their business name — scan the QR code, pay, done! Sure beats using ASIC’s clunky, slow and grossly outdated decades-old site I’m sure.

But where this becomes a scam in my books, is that if a business owner pays early enough, ASIC will never send out the renewal notice it would have sent some months later, advising the real fee and where/how to pay. Rather, it will send out confirmation of the renewal (assuming this mob do indeed register on your behalf), making everything look oh-so clean and above-board.