I got a response from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), verifying that this absolutely was a scam:
Dear Mr. Steg:
Thank you for contacting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Please be advised there is no registered firm or legitimate U.S. government regulator with any name matching or similar to the "US Offshore Registry Commission." In addition, Paragon GPS is not registered with the SEC. The SEC is aware of a number of fraudulent solicitations currently underway that purport to be affiliated with or sponsored by the federal government and legitimate securities regulators. Please see our recent Investor Alert: SEC Warns of Bogus Securities Regulators Soliciting Investors available at
www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/ia_bogusregulators.htm and
www.sec.gov/answers/impersonators.htm.
Based on the information you provided, it appears that you have been contacted by persons engaging in an “Advance Fee Fraud." This type of scam generally involves requests that investors pay a fee in advance as a condition of closing a proposed transaction (referred to as “advance fee fraud”). After the investor pays the advance fee or similar fees as directed, the investment firm may break off contact. In the end, the proposed transaction does not take place, and the investor is never paid and never recovers the fees paid in advance.
For more information on advance fee frauds and other types of scams, please see our fast answer (available at
http://www.sec.gov/answers/advancefeefraud.htm) and investor alert (available at
https://investor.gov/additional-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/updated-investor-alert-be-lookout-advance-fee).
An additional source of information about firms or entities that claim to be, but are not, registered with the SEC is the SEC’s Public Alert: Unregistered Soliciting Entities (PAUSE) webpage at
http://www.sec.gov/investor/oiepauselist.htm. The PAUSE list includes entities that have been the subject of investor complaints and for which SEC staff has determined that (i) there is no U.S. registered securities firm with this name, or (ii) there is a U.S. registered securities firm with the same (or a similar) name, but solicitations appear to have been made by persons who are not affiliated with the U.S. registered securities firm.
Sincerely,
Nina Smallwood-Johnson
Attorney
Office of Investor Education and Advocacy
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(800) 732-0330
http://www.sec.gov
www.investor.gov
www.twitter.com/SEC_Investor_Ed
File Attachment:
Correspondent Name: Mr. Steg
Create Date: 2018-08-30 09:49:02
Origin: Web
File #: HO::~00680575~::HO
Description:
Is the US Offshore Registry Commission a valid entity representing the US goverment? I have been approached by someone pretending to verify my distressed shares in Paragon GPS using this entity with recommendation from Nasdaq. Contact info: US Offshore Registry Commission
info@usoreg.org +1-646-741-5159 90 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Link to website:
http://usoreg.org/ According to icann the name registration is only a few weeks old:
https://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=usoreg.org
ref:_00D30JxQy._500t0BiRJMAA3:ref
