HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — Crooks took over a longtime Henry County business’s registration at the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. The company’s owners now wonder what kind of damage they can do with that control.
It was an employee at a PNC Bank branch and another at a different DeKalb PNC location who first flagged this fraud, Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray said.
When someone came in trying to set up a bank account, the banker noticed the officer information for the company had just been changed electronically in the middle of the night before.
“I feel like somebody stole our company,” Charles Roberts said. He and his sister Debbie Avans run C&M Masonry.
If you go right now to the Georgia Secretary of State business registry, someone named Steven Long is secretary, CFO and CEO of C&M Masonry.
Roberts and Avans apparently replaced at the company that’s been in their family for four decades.
“We got blocked out on (the) company. So we’re concerned about what all can he do,” Roberts said.
They found out something was wrong when a PNC Bank employee called to check about Long setting up a business account.
“He said they were not going to open the account, but they encouraged me to check Secretary of State. I thought it was a bogus call, you know, fraud call,” Avans said.
That’s when she saw this, someone changed their registration at 2 a.m. last Tuesday.
“The part we were frustrated about, we can’t go in and change it back, can’t fix it,” Roberts said.
A $71,000 check made out to C&M Masonry was also stolen from the mail last week. They believe the crook is trying to cash it.
“The uncomfortable thing is, is what else are they doing? This is the only thing I know about. And did they actually get an account open?” Avans said.
Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Matthew Tyser says this is rare.
The office has security steps in place to try to prevent hacking of the business registry.
“When we send out that email to you or send it to your registered agent, it’s the form of two-factor authentication, right? Somebody can’t make the change without us telling you about it,” Tyser said.
It’s been so long since C&M Masonry was incorporated, Roberts and Avans don’t know where that authentication message might have gone. They never saw it.
But they want to make sure other Georgia businesses don’t go through this
“Check them. Make sure that information is correct in there, because if they did it to us, they’re doing it to others,” Avans said.
Channel 2 Investigates has the email address the fake CEO used, so we messaged him, asking is he the CEO of C&M Masonry.
He did not respond.
Roberts and Avans got the company who wrote that $71,000 check to stop payment. They are concerned the crook may have successfully opened a bank account in their name somewhere else or may still be trying.
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