ALERT: Business Scam

Pirates and there is another scam out there, calling our office, pretending to be MicroSoft and needing to access your computer. Don't fall for that one either!

These scams are SO frustrating, but what can you do once they hoodwink an employee into an order? We had someone who allegedly ordered toner. The PO Spectrum used was the person who answered the phones last name, which for our company is not valid. Now we have toner we don't want and keep getting invoices with late fees. I called to ask for a call tag and he said look if you want to send it back take down this address. As I was struggling to get the return address was told to shut-up and listen and when I tried to explain I wanted a call tag was actually told to F*** off I am busy and don't care of you messed up and placed an order if you don't send it back we will turn you over to collections.

Unfortunately, this is not a new scam at all. It has been going on at least since I was 18 and I'm now 48! I interviewed for a telemarketing job in Newport Beach, Ca, way back then, to find out that this was exactly what they were doing. They'd change their name every few months to weeks depending on how quickly they were found out to be an off brand company posing as the current supplier for the company on the phone. The toner and developer was off brand and expensive. So, always make sure that you are not giving out any office info on your equipment, enabling these companies to pose as your supplier with the specific brand name of your copier. They typically try to get someone in the office to give them model number off the copier, so that they can look it up really fast and speak a little more intelligently about your specific equipment. Beware! Hope that helps some of you avoid the scam altogether with, and it seems that they preyed upon new secretary positions from old want ads, so the new hires would be less likely to know it was a scam coming. So, if you have new receptionist/secretaries please inform them so as not to fall victim to it.

Thanks Dan. I just received the same invoice from them. They had called me a few weeks back when my office received a new copier. They knew the copier model and the current toner levels. Sounds like they have contacts at every company to help with their scam. I filed a BBB complaint, along with numerous others. Good luck calling them on the phone. They either curse you off, call you a liar or just hang up on you. Returned toner at my expense to get rid of them and their bogus $389.97 bill for one black toner.

I have seen this type of scam with quite a few different product lines used in business. Sweeping Compound was one. A warehouse manager was involved with. Normally something that would cost about $150.00 (300 lb drum) cost him $1300.00. This is quite common and you and your people need to be vigilant I suggest that you make one person the only one who can make the buying decision for the products and/or use a written paper trail for everything. Get email confirmations from any phone calls to verify source. Alas it is easy to armchair quarterback after the fact.