New scam pushes bogus office supplies
May 26, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Dealers & Channel, Special Report
The latest trick in office supply scams: fooling inexperienced employees into authorizing big purchases the company doesn’t need.
A TV station in Seattle is the latest business to fall for the trick. Here’s what happened, according to Jesse Jones of KING-TV:
An operations administrator for the station’s sales department got a phone call from a company known as National Imaging Systems. The caller identified himself as a representative for the station’s toner supplier. It was time to send a new order, he said, and he just needed to confirm the station’s shipping address.
Not knowing the ins-and-outs of the company’s purchasing methods, she said OK and gave the caller the address. Big mistake.
The station had never done business with National Imaging Systems before. Soon, the company received a box of six cartridges and a bill for $1,600.
The same thing happened to another Seattle business, Real Time Productions. This time, the call was from a supplier called Capitol Imaging Systems. Toner was sent, along with a bill for $637 — even though the company’s real supplier was already sending toner every month, pre-paid.
After months of phone calls and legal threats, KING-TV eventually got its money back.
Train employees
The Better Business Bureau warns that this type of scam becomes more common during the summer, when key employees may be on vacation and many companies are staffed with temporary workers. Those employees may easily be duped into ordering shoddy, overpriced supplies.
To keep your company from getting duped, the BBB recommends training employees who answer telephones not to authorize the ordering of any supplies (and not to “verify” any information for an unknown vendor). Admins and other employees should respond to all unsolicited offers by stating, “I am not authorized to order anything. You will have to speak to the person in charge of ordering supplies and get a purchase order.”
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May 27th, 2009 at 8:44 am
This is an old scam that has been renewed. My office fell victim to this about 15 years ago. A salesman called the office and spoke with my secretary and stated that his company supplied our toner and copier needs and he needed to confirm the copier model. She gave him the information not knowing that we had a different supplier.
A few days later we received the toner and a large invoice. I called the company and couldn’t get an answer and I wasn’t about to pay to ship the stuff back so I did nothing.
After a few weeks I got a call about the late payment and told him I wanted to ship the stuff back but they refused stating it was a legitimate sale. I called the local sheriff department’s fraud unit and filed a report. After a few more weeks passed I received a rather brutal call telling me to pay the invoice or they would file action. I simply told them that the local fraud unit had their toner and gave them the number of the investigator. Never heard back from them.
May 27th, 2009 at 11:24 am
We’ve had this scam hit us at various times over the last couple of years and here’s how I solved the problem each time. The first time I called them and told them that they had fradulantly sold us supplies by telling the employee that all they needed was the shipping address. The second time it happened I dumped the entire contents of the cartridges into the box placed a note telling them they shipped us the wrong supplies and then sealed every square inch of the box so nothing would leak out during shipping. Never had a problem since!!!!!
May 27th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
This is not a new scam. These office suppliers have been calling me for years.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Ah, Toner Phoners. The bane of copier technicians everywhere. When I worked for a real copy machine company I sometimes got to talk to those scum. “I’m calling to verify the model of your copier,” one scammer would say. Another scam: “Our truck broke down and we need to unload it so it can be repaired.” They are real good at intimidation when they get an intern or newbie on the phone. I’ve had to grab the phone a couple of times to save some poor kid from making a bad decision, and have had the satisfaction of scaring the scum in return.
The ink and toner these yahoos sell is crap and can harm machinery. One toner phoner ink bottle I sent for analysis turned out to be scavenged, used toner. Total garbage, and ruined the customer’s machine.
Once a sales rep for my company made a cold call at a warehouse in downtown LA. As he walked in the unlocked door, he saw that the big open area was filled with desks, on each desk a phone, and at each desk a minimum wage person with a phone book, calling numbers as they went down the page, representing themselves as toner sales people for my company.
The creature in charge hustled the sales rep out the door. The sales rep call corporate HQ. Corporate sent a team to investigate two hours later, and the place was CLEANED OUT. Nothing left but bits of string, some phone cable and a few broken chairs.
Public flogging should be about right for these scum. I’d be happy to do the honors.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Not a new scam at all, just a revival of a time-tested scam. I used to get these calls every couple of weeks when I was in charge of computer supplies at a company 25 years ago. The surprise part for me was that the quantities were small – my scammers were trying to sell me multiple pallets of toner for a 15-person office.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
This scam is not new. I have been getting these calls for the last 25 years.
May 27th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
For those taken by a scam of this type, call the company when you receive the invoice and demand to listen to the recording of the call. No call, no proof of an agreement. Tell them if they call again, or you see another bogus invoice, you’ll take legal action.
Chances are most will not have a recording or want to provide it.
I used this several years ago with a company that billed us for business listings.
May 27th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I had a similar experience only I was lucky in that the amount charged wasn’t quite so large. I had someone call saying they worked with HP and that they wanted us to try a sample of a new toner cartridge and to give them feed back on how well it worked. It was suppose to last up to three times longer than our current cartridges. Needless to say thirty days after the delivery of our so called sample we were billed at a rate of three or more times what we normally spent on a single cartridge and the cartridge hadn’t lasted near as long as our normal toner cartridges did. The name of the company on the bill “National Imaging Systems” with a billing address from California. Thank God I didn’t get stuck with a bill as high as the ones you wrote of in your article. I tried to explain that I had never ordered any cartridges but was informed that there had been paperwork in the original shipping box that stated if it had not been returned unused within 30 days we would be charged. The package was opened at our supply room but although our guys said there was no documentation I had no proof except their word against the companies. Not once in the phone conversation (informing me of the trial sample) was there ever reference to a fee. Although this was not as large a fee as others incurred (roughly $191) it wasn’t a good day for the new kid on the block which leads me to ask: “How many new employees have ended up fired because of scams such as these?”
May 27th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
The better question is why was the bill paid when the order was a trick?
While my company has never had this occurance happen, if a vendor doesn’t deliver as promised, finance doesn’t pay, simple as that.
If the bill was for something never ordered, it should have been sent back Cod with the bill marked not-ordered
and rejected.
May 27th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
This is the most rediculous thing I have heard. We had someone do this to us. We called them and told them that we did not order this and told them all there supplies were on the front porch and when the bills came we threw them in the trash.
Come get your supplies.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I just received a call from “Copier Supply Warehouse” claiming they wanted to send me a catalog and needed my copier’s serial number. I asked what the catalog was for and they said it would explain how to fix things if something went wrong. When she asked for the number again I said, “Don’t you have that in your system?” and she said she needed it to pull up my account. Finally she said, “Why are you asking so many damn questions?” I said, “Excuse me?” and she hung up. Obviously she was scam artist if she was cussing out the customers!
Why was I asking so many question, “Jan”??? Because I got a similar call a year ago and that person didn’t have any information about our copier either, and didn’t react well when I turned them down too. ALL of our supplies come directly from the leasing agency…and you aren’t calling from that organization. I’m not going to get duped by you.
I just sent a reminder email to all of my employees that ALL supply calls like that need to come through me for exactly this reason. I feel sick to my stomach from the experience.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
To John Q: I also get scam phone calls for publication listings. One tried to tell me I had authorized a $700 bill last year! I knew that wasn’t true. I told them to fax me the authorization; they claimed they would but never did. We have only ever advertised in one yellow pages and that’s the only one we continue to list ourselves in.
August 21st, 2009 at 4:50 am
I’ve heard about it several times already. This scam issue is only renewed from its original article. Anyways, consumers must be alert of all scams that is vastly ongoing.
September 8th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
You people are full of it. you get tricked into buying toner at a mark up ,then you claim you never ordered it even thoe you signed a fax that said they are not affiliated with any other company and are a telemarketing firm. fact is without telemarketing companies all thoes minimum wage people that are unemployable at any other company would be sucking up our tax dollars on unemployment. look at it this way thoes toner rooms and paper pirates , packing tape ,tools what ever there selling is keeping people from being on the street that might be beging money from you. yours truly DON PARKER toner salesman. yo ho yo ho its a pirates life for me.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
This is to Don… for your information when this happened at our office there was no signed fax for the order and no one ever stated anything about an order.. Our phone conversation was about a sample of a new cartridge they wanted us to try.. We receive samples all the time and have only been charged once for one and that was with the cartridge guys… As for telemarketing.. there are a shit load of telemarketing people that are real, unfortunately “pirates” such as yourself and the ones pulling these scams make it tough on those trying to do an honest job.
December 28th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I was told once that most of the “pirates” are out-of-work actors in California. Seems to be true judging by the above responses about shipments from that state.
I get these calls forwarded to me about once a month. (I work in Purchasing.) I usually ask so many questions that the person hangs up on me.
Another one that’s happened over maybe the last 3-4 years involves someone (usually with a non-gender specific name like Chris or Pat) calling to unload post it notes and pens. He or she wants to ship out a gross of post it twelve packs – over 1700 pads! The funny thing is the name used continues for a few months: “Pat Jones” could be a male one week, and two weeks later a female named “Pat Jones” calls with the same offer. They are also notorious for using certain coworkers’ names as the person that suggested they call me: “Mary was very interested in the deal and said I should call you to get the order going. She thinks the 3 x 3′s are your best option.”
January 25th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Look i’am not looking to piss off the public or hurt anyone with what i do for a living. that being said i’am not proud of what i do either, for me it’s a way of paying my bills a way for my family to eat. i never wanted to do this for a living but this is how i survive. it could be worse i could be out commiting crimes to pay my rent, instead i choose to work, i get up at 5:00am every mourning and go to work because i have to not because i want to. i have tried to get out of this business but no company can pay me what i make now with the lack of education i have. i have a few good friends in this business with higher educations that keep doing telemarketing because it pays them better.as for Karen i have never heard of the posted note scam i wonder how profitable it really is, thats a new one for me.
April 20th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Yep, just got another call from these unethical sellers myself. Ask to be removed from the list but all I got was silence and then hung up on. Don sorry to hear your plight but you’d be better off commiting crimes. Your essentually stealing by deception anyway.
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Tim, I have to completely agree. Don and his kin may be “just trying to make a living”, but in all actuality, the level of deception they use, and the amount of trouble they cause gets other people fired…you know…people who are trying to make an honest living. Sorry, no sympathy.