My Sam Registration Expired

Nosotros've written earlier about companies that prey on smaller federal contractors and charge them hundreds of dollars for things like SAM registrations and renewals that are completely free. PTAC counselors across the country are constantly warning our clients near these companies, but their abiding barrage of deceptive and confusing phone calls, emails, text messages, postcards, and other mailings sometimes causes our clients to doubt what they know. If you're ever unsure, you lot can always call your local PTAC and they will vet these letters for yous, but here are some tips that you tin can use to split up the wheat from the chaff yourself:

1. Your entity registration in the Arrangement for Award Direction (SAM) expires after ane yr – Knowing this, you tin remind yourself when y'all need to renew your entity registration. Whether you use reminders on your telephone or computer, a physical calendar or day planner, make annotation of when you lot demand to renew your registration. So you can ignoreallmessages and not worry most whether they are legitimate or not. If you don't have any significant changes to brand when y'all update, a few days before your expiration date should give you plenty of time, but if y'all have major updates to brand, you may desire to renew 2-3 weeks before your expiration, especially if y'all have current, active contracts with the federal government. Please note that you are required to update your entity registration as your entity'south information changes, and then if you have meaning updates to make, yous should non exist waiting until just earlier your registration expires anyway.
2. Know how to check the status of your entity registration yourself – One tactic some of these companies use is that they tell yous your entity's registration expires before information technology actually does. In case you don't remember when you last updated your registration and you didn't tape your expiration engagement, you can check information technology yourself in 3 steps. You don't fifty-fifty accept to log in to do this (unless you fabricated your entity registration individual). Hither's how: Go to https://sam.gov/, click on "SEARCH RECORDS," so enter your entity name, DUNS number, or Cage lawmaking in the appropriate box and click "SEARCH." If your entity doesn't bear witness upward in the search results like the example below, your registration may have already expired. Check the box next to "Inactive" on the left side and click "Use Filters." If it doesn't show up then, you may have made your registration individual and will need to log in.
3. The federal government does not phone call, text, or mail service companies about their entity registrations – SAM is managed by the U.S. General Services Assistants (GSA). I could see them eventually offer renewal reminders via text message, only equally of this writing, they practise not. The only reminders they send out are via email and they come from samadmin@sam.gov. Your entity's "primary signal of contact" (I believe that'southward the government business point of contact) volition receive an e-mail reminder at threescore days, xxx days and xv days prior to the expiration of your registration. Please notation that yous may receive other legitimate emails about your entity registration from the CAGE section (electronic mail addresses volition end in "dla.mil") and the Federal Service Desk (electronic mail addresses will end in "service-at present.com"), but you tin safely ignore any phone calls, text messages, postcards, or other mailings you lot receive about your SAM registration.
   

   

   The federal government does not send you concrete postal service nigh your entity registration in SAM. If you receive post like this, toss it in the recycling bin.

4. SAM is completely gratuitous – I know I said this at the outset, but it bears repeating. If y'all forget everything else in this weblog post, think that there is no cost to fix up an individual user business relationship, or annals or renew your entity in SAM. If you lot stop up at a website or on a phone telephone call where you are asked to provide your credit card number or bank business relationship information to pay for a SAM registration or renewal, close the browser window or hang up.

At this betoken, you should exist well-equipped to effigy out which messages to pay attention to and which to ignore, but hither are iii bonus tips for vetting emails:

• Expect at the email address of the sender – Depending on what email platform yous are using, the actual email address of the sender may not be immediately visible. You may need to hover your cursor over the sender'south name or hit "reply" to exist able to run across the actual electronic mail address. These companies like to use terms like "SAM," "fed," "gov," "renewal department" and/or "help desk" in their proper noun and/or email address, merely don't exist fooled. Refer back to #3, above, for the email addresses and domains of the only valid senders.
• Look for a disclaimer at the bottom of the email – The true scammers won't have a disclaimer, just most of the companies that operate in this space want to keep to ride the gravy train, then they try not to cantankerous the line betwixt legal and illegal. The entire e-mail may make information technology seem like they are a regime agency or representing the federal regime, but at the bottom of the email y'all will usually find a disclaimer, ofttimes in fine print, that says something to the event of "This is an advertisement and we are non a government agency."
• Look for the physical address of the company at the lesser of the e-mail – To be in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, all commercial email must include the valid concrete postal address of the sender. For whatever reason, most of these companies are based in Florida.

If afterward reading all of these tips, you are nonetheless unsure, please call your local PTAC and they will gladly assist you gratuitous of charge.

Posted six/2/2020

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Source: https://www.montanaptac.org/uncategorized/2020/your-sam-registration-is-expiring-or-maybe-not-heres-how-you-can-tell/

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