Check my doors — freeCheck my doors

SAM registration · Scam check

Is this SAM letter real?

Your registration data is public, and an industry farms it: letters and emails that look like government bills, counting down to an "expiration" that is really the anniversary of your last payment to them. Hold the notice up to the tells GSA itself publishes — six questions, one verdict.

The notice, question by question

Answer for the letter or email in front of you — exactly what it says, not what it sounds like. Every answer matters: a notice can only read as real when all six are clear.

Does it ask you to pay money — to register, renew, update, or 'stay active'?

Where did it come from?

It names an expiration or deadline date. Does that date match the expiration date on your SAM.gov record?

Your real date is free to read: search your business in SAM.gov's public entity search. The mills count from your purchase date with them — a buyer's own review of a $599 company describes countdown emails aimed at 'exactly one year from my purchase receipt.'

Does it claim a rule like a '120-day renewal rule,' or warn that your registration 'automatically expires' if you stop paying a company?

No 120-day rule exists. Registrations run 365 days from activation and lapse only if you don't renew — free, yourself, at SAM.gov.

Does it include a form asking for your card or bank details — a 'credentialing form,' an 'annual fee,' a digitization charge?

GSA OIG's July 31, 2026 alert describes exactly this: fake Vendor Credentialing Forms harvesting card numbers, sent by people impersonating named GSA officials.

What does it want you to do next?

The one sentence that settles most notices: the government will never ask you to pay to register, update your registration, or renew — GSA's words, from its "Don't Take the Bait" bulletin. Real reminders come from a .gov address and never ask you to call or text. When in doubt, ignore the notice entirely and go to SAM.gov yourself, the way you would type your bank's address yourself.

The paid kit

The GovDoor Kit

Inside the kit, the Scam Letter File annotates real specimens — the countdown letter, the credentialing-fee email, the digitization notice — with every tell marked, plus the free renewal walkthrough and the FTC / GSA OIG reporting steps.

$49 one-time payment

See what's in the kit

Questions about these letters

Do I have to pay to renew my SAM registration?

No. Renewal is free, at SAM.gov, every 365 days. GSA's bulletin says it flatly: the government will never ask you to pay to register, update your registration, or renew. Companies that charge $349 to $899 for renewals are selling you your own free action — and at least one of them counts the 'expiration' in its countdown emails from the date you bought from them, not from your SAM record.

How do I find my real SAM expiration date?

Search your business in SAM.gov's public entity search and read the date on the record itself. That date — 365 days from your last activation — is the only one that exists. Any letter, email, or phone call naming a different date is wrong, whatever seal it prints.

What does a real SAM email look like?

It comes from a .gov address, links only to .gov pages, never asks for money, and never asks you to call or text. SAM staff do not solicit by phone or social media. Anything else — a look-alike domain, a payment link, a countdown — fails GSA's published tells.

Got the letter before you ever registered? Start with the free readiness checker — it prints your doors in order, registration first. Worried about a plan a course sold you? Draw the Middleman Line.