This week, my office filed a lawsuit against Personnel Concepts, a marketing company that sells workplace compliance posters provided by government free of charge. Their solicitations are designed to look like official government communications and threaten large fines against small businesses that don’t buy the posters. What makes things worse is the posters don’t include all necessary information, so alongside small businesses being victimized, workers are harmed when they are not informed of their full labor rights. You can read more about it in this San Francisco Standard article.
Running a small business is hard enough these days, and these scams make it more challenging. Impersonating government actors not only defrauds consumers, but deeply erodes trust in government. My office is seeking restitution for those victimized and an immediate end to this practice.
Consumer protection has been a top priority of mine since my first day as City Attorney. During this week, which also happens to be National Consumer Protection Week, my office launched a new consumer protection hotline and web portal to make it easier to report suspected cases of consumer fraud. Please visit our new web portal or call our hotline at (415) 554-3977 if you or anyone you know has been victimized by Personnel Concepts or any other company that is defrauding consumers.