Why Mail Starts Arriving After You Form an LLC, and Which Address Field Sent It

Where the sender got the address

State business filings are public, and the four state records we opened bear that out. California’s Secretary of State puts it without hedging in its business entity FAQ: “the name and the physical street address of the agent for service of process is a public record, open to all (as are all the addresses of the corporation provided in filings made with the California Secretary of State.)”

The Washington State Attorney General made the same point while warning residents about mailings addressed to business owners in December 2024. The office described the information printed on those letters as coming from a place anyone could reach, noting that business names and state identification numbers are “publicly available, not confidential.” The Federal Trade Commission has said something similar about what shows up on these mailers, warning that a notice “may include your actual business identification number.”

What we could not establish, and will not claim, is the purchase trail. No state or federal source we read says a particular sender bought a particular file. The honest version is narrower and still enough: the company name, the state identification number, and the address printed on that envelope all sit in a public state record, and all four of the states whose bulk file we checked hand that whole record over, two of them for free.

New York publishes its active corporations file as open data with 4,277,762 rows and no account required. Florida’s Division of Corporations offers what it calls free data downloads for informational purposes, with the public credentials printed on the page. Georgia sells the same kind of file: $1,000 for a one-time purchase, or $100 to establish an FTP account and $500 a month after that. Kentucky charges commercial subscribers $2,000 a month for business records, and waives the fee for non-commercial users such as researchers, with the fee changing if the purpose of use changes to commercial.

We did not find a state that refuses to release the file. What we found instead were states that charge for it, and one state whose public record never carries a business address to begin with.

The timing is not a coincidence either, and a federal complaint points the same way. When the FTC and the Florida Attorney General sued the operator of a labor law poster mailing in 2018, the complaint described who the mailer was aimed at. The FTC’s own summary of the case says recipients of the mailer “are often small businesses that have recently incorporated or established limited liability companies.”

Which address field is the one that gets published

This is the part that gets skipped. A formation document carries several address fields, each with a different name, a different legal duty attached, and different odds of being published.

New York is the clearest case, because the state publishes its file and the file can be counted. Its active corporations data set carries four address fields: an address for service of process, a registered agent address, a chief executive officer address, and a location address. Counting domestic limited liability companies in that file on September 11, 2026 gives a lopsided picture.

The statute explains the shape of that table. Section 203(e) of New York’s limited liability company law lists what the articles of organization must contain, and it treats the two lines differently. Paragraph four requires “a designation of the secretary of state as agent of the limited liability company upon whom process against it may be served and the post office address … to which the secretary of state shall mail a copy of any process …” Paragraph five begins with a condition: “if the limited liability company is to have a registered agent, its name and address within this state …” One is mandatory. The other starts with the word if. The file matches the statute.

The practical consequence runs against a common assumption. A New York owner who hires a registered agent and believes that hiring covers the public record has still filled in a mandatory field of their own, and that field is the one on essentially every record. It is a mailing address the founder chose. Whatever is written there is where the state forwards lawsuits, and it is also what a list builder reads.

Other states divide the fields differently, which is why there is no single answer to carry across a border.

Of the four in that table, three publish an address the founder typed. Delaware publishes the agent’s. That difference is not a ranking of which state is better. It is a description of which field to think about before filing, and in Delaware the answer is that the registered agent line is carrying the whole public record by itself.

What the letters ask for, and what the state actually charges

The documents named in these mailings are usually real documents. A certificate of status exists. Annual reports exist. Labor law posters exist. What the mailing adds is a price, a deadline, and a tone.

State filing offices publish their own numbers next to the numbers on the letters, and several of them do the comparison out loud.

That last row is the one with a judgment attached. In FTC and Office of the Attorney General, State of Florida v. Starwood Consulting, LLC, doing business as Corporate Compliance Services, filed in the Southern District of Texas as case 4:18-cv-02368, the defendants agreed to pay $1.2 million and to be banned from sending unsolicited direct mail. The FTC described the mailers as looking like invoices from government agencies, directing recipients to pay $84 for posters, and warning that “Failure to comply with posting regulations can lead to fines of up to $17,000.” In July 2020 the Commission mailed 26,817 refund checks with a value of $40.80 each.

One detail from that case is worth carrying into the next envelope you open. The mailers cited federal law by section number, and the sections were decorative. The Commission noted that one cited provision refers to repealed provisions of the Young Adult Conservation Corps, and another addresses the Employee Polygraph Protection Act. A section number printed on one of these letters is not proof that the section says anything about you.

Naming the senders is harder than it looks, and worth being careful about. State offices do publish names: Oregon’s office names Workplace Compliance Services and describes it as a private Michigan company that is not authorized by or affiliated with the Oregon Secretary of State. North Carolina keeps a dated list of names its office has seen. But the names rotate, and the FTC’s 2024 consumer alert describes a pattern rather than a company, saying the fake government letters have agency names that include words like United States, business regulation, and trademark to make them seem legitimate. The pattern outlives any single name on it.

The sentences federal law requires on that envelope

There is a rule for this, and it is more specific than most people expect. Two of the federal requirements can apply to the same piece of mail at once, because these letters usually do two things together: they look like a bill, and they look like the government. A third applies only when the thing being sold is already free from the federal government.

A solicitation that looks like a bill has to say it is not one. The statute supplies the text and lets the Postal Service prescribe an alternative to the same effect: “This is a solicitation for the order of goods or services, or both, and not a bill, invoice, or statement of account due. You are under no obligation to make any payments on account of this offer unless you accept this offer.”

A solicitation that implies a federal connection has a separate requirement, triggered when a mailing by a nongovernmental entity “reasonably could be interpreted or construed as implying any Federal Government connection, approval, or endorsement through the use of a seal, insignia, reference to the Postmaster General, citation to a Federal statute, name of a Federal agency, department, commission, or program, trade or brand name, or any other term or symbol.” When that happens, the mailing is nonmailable matter unless it carries, in the body, “THIS PRODUCT OR SERVICE HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, AND THIS OFFER IS NOT BEING MADE BY AN AGENCY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.” and, on the envelope, “THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT.” That provision lets either notice be replaced by one to the same effect in words the Postal Service may prescribe.

The Postal Service sets the typography, which is what makes this checkable by eye rather than by lawyer. The envelope notice must be “never smaller than 12-point type,” in the upper right quadrant below the postage and above the address, surrounded by clear space not less than a quarter inch wide. The notice inside must be “never smaller than 30-point type,” surrounded by clear space at least half an inch wide, and it must not be softened by anything around it: the rules forbid words that reduce its conspicuousness or that introduce, modify, qualify, or explain the required text, and they name “Notice Required by Law” as an example of what not to add.

Beyond those two, there is a rule aimed squarely at the poster mailing. Solicitations for payment for services otherwise available to the recipient free of charge from the federal government are nonmailable unless they contain a clear and conspicuous statement giving notice of that fact.

Being nonmailable is not itself a fine. The chain runs further: a nonconforming solicitation is prima facie evidence of a violation, which supports a Postal Service order, and civil penalties attach to violating that order. The scale of those penalties is set by statute at up to $50,000 for each mailing of fewer than 50,000 pieces, rising with volume.

Mail fraud can be reported to the Postal Inspection Service at uspis.gov/report, by phone at 1-877-876-2455, or by writing to the Criminal Investigations Service Center in Chicago. The examples that page lists are consumer schemes rather than business solicitations, so do not expect to find your envelope described there. The office’s general position is broader: any fraud that uses the U.S. Mail is mail fraud.

Three of the four states whose statutes we read wrote their own rules

State legislatures have written disclosure rules too, and reading them next to each other shows something the federal rule alone does not.

California requires a wider disclaimer than the federal one. Where the federal sentence denies a federal connection, California’s denies any connection: “THIS PRODUCT OR SERVICE HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY ANY GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY, AND THIS OFFER IS NOT BEING MADE BY AN AGENCY OF THE GOVERNMENT.” It has to appear on the front and back of every page. California also bans the costume itself: a sender may not use a business name containing words like agency, bureau, commission, department, division, federal, state, county, or municipal, may not print a due date or a phrase like remit by, and may not state or imply that payment is mandatory or required by law or that penalties will follow if payment is not made. A violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $2,500, or both.

Florida fixes a size rather than a position. Its statute requires a 30-point boldfaced warning that the document is a solicitation and that the recipient is under no obligation to pay unless the offer is accepted, and it lets a person recover damages equal to three times the sum solicited.

California and Florida both tell a sender what to print. Texas draws the line by costume instead. Its deceptive trade practices law lists as unlawful the delivery of a solicitation that represents it is sent on behalf of a governmental entity when it is not, or that resembles a governmental notice or form implying a criminal penalty for not paying, and that item names no sentence that makes such a letter lawful. The very next item in the same list does offer a printing trade for the other costume: a solicitation that resembles a check or an invoice is unlawful unless the part that looks like the check carries “SPECIMEN-NON-NEGOTIABLE” in at least 18-point type.

So of the four rulebooks we read, three tell a sender what to print when the letter wears the government costume: the federal rule, California, and Florida. California attaches conditions beyond the printing, and Texas names a sentence only for the invoice costume. We looked for a New York equivalent and did not find one. The New York provision we read governs bait advertising and unordered merchandise, not government look-alike notices, so we are not claiming New York has this rule.

What the real mail looks like

The reason a fake state notice works is that the real ones exist, arrive by mail, and matter. The IRS says so about itself: “We normally contact you the first time by mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.” The agency also says it emails only when you opt in, texts only when you opt in, and that a social media direct message is never from it.

The page we read does not carry the familiar never list in the form people quote. The IRS’s current guidance frames the same idea as warning signs, saying a phone call, email, or text message is not from the IRS if it is unexpected, rushes you, threatens you, asks for personal or financial information, or demands payment now.

State practice varies enough that memorizing one state’s pattern will mislead you in another.

• Oregon mails an annual report notice to each business about 50 days before the business anniversary date, and says the official notice will always contain an image of the Oregon state seal, the words Secretary of State Corporation Division, and the office phone number 503-986-2200.
• Delaware tells entities to be suspicious of any correspondence, by mail or email, that does not come directly from the State or from the entity’s Delaware registered agent, and says an official notice from the Division of Corporations will carry the Delaware Coat of Arms and the Division’s contact information.
• Florida confirms online filings by email to the address given on the filing and says those filers will not receive a confirmation by U.S. Mail, and it confirms filings made by mail with a letter.

There is no national rule for what a real state notice looks like, and that absence is the thing the senders are working with. A letter that arrives in a state whose office said it would send an email has already told you something.

What is still a choice, and what is not

The decision that changes where these letters land first is made on the form, before any of them arrives.

Before filing, the question is field by field rather than all or nothing: which lines on this state’s form are published, which of those lines will accept an address that is not where you sleep, and which one carries a legal duty that makes substitution a bad idea. In New York the process address is mandatory and public and chosen by you, which makes it the field worth the most thought. In Delaware the registered agent line is the only address in the free record, so the agent choice is the address decision. Our guide to what becomes public when you use a home address has the state by state detail, and the piece on whether a registered agent hides a home address covers the case where owners assume one field covers another.

After filing, the options are narrower and slower. An address already published has been copied by anyone who downloads the file, and the copy does not update when the record does. Changing a filed address changes what the state shows going forward. It does not retrieve what left.

For the specific document these letters keep selling, the state counter is cheap and often unnecessary. Our certificate of good standing guide lists the real fees and processing times by state, which is the fastest way to price a letter before paying it.

One boundary is worth naming, because these three situations get filed under the same question. This article is about mail that follows your own filing to your own address. It is a different situation from a stranger listing your address on their filing, which we cover in what a filing office can and cannot undo, and different again from the question of whether you may use an address that is not yours.