So a guy calls me up “Hi, this is Gary calling about the photocopier – can you tell me the model number from the front cover?”
I say “You must have the wrong guy – I don’t have a photocopier.”
He hangs up immediately.
A few minutes later, it occurs to me that this might have been a scam of some sort, so I do a few web searches. Sure enough, there’s something called the “toner phoner” scam.
I wish I’d figured it out at the time, then I could have f*cked with the guy a little.
Ha! We used to get these calls all the time at my old job. They call hoping someone will give them the copier number so that they can send you piles and piles of useless toner and bill you, hoping that in the crush of all the paperwork in a standard office it will just get paid for.
We used to like to put them on hold ("Hmmm… dunno. Lemme go check… ") and then go get a cup of coffee or something.
By the time I left, the receptionist and I agreed we would tell them that we didn’t own a copier. That we just rewrote everything over by hand, over and over, until we had as many copies as we needed…
I used to get these calls at my old job every couple of months. My response always was, “So, you provide all the toner and maintenance for our copier here?”
They’d respond yes, and then I’d say, “Well, that is very interesting considering we don’t even HAVE a copier here.” Usually they’d hang up, but once a guy said, “Well you don’t have to be such a bitch about it.” I got a good laugh out of that one.
We got these calls, too. It’s funny, because at the time we had a barter arrangement with the office supply company…we got machines and maintenance, they got television advertising. So I would play all dumb, “I thought the toner was covered under our barter agreeement?” then they would hang up.
I always wanted to mess with their heads by saying, “It’s a Classico Prismatic 2500. What do you mean? Of course it’s real! It’s made in Italy and prints in 5000 colors, including MacKenzie tartain plaid!”
These chuckleheads call our office constantly. My standard response is to tell them the model number is “three”. When they question this, I simply explain that it’s a very old copier.
At a former workplace we passed those guys around.
“Oh, wait, I’m sorry! You want to talk to Kim.”
Kim: “Oh, I’m sorry, you were tranferred to me by accident. You need to talk to Jenny.”
Jenny: “Oops, hang on, you want to talk to John.”
John: “…you need Cathy…”
Cathy: “…you need Erica…”
Erica: “…you need chique…”
Was fun. 
How is the scam economically viable?
They send a bunch of expensive supplies to someone hoping they will pay?
I bet 1 out of 10 people might pay, so what gives?
They’re not that expensive. I’ve heard of scammers sending people empty recycled cartridges. Also, the bill they send will be outrageously inflated. They’ll charge you $900 for a $150 cartridge.
The hope is that in a moderately sized office, the invoice will simply be sent to the accounting dudes, they’ll confirm that the stuff was delivered, and write the check. Apparently it’s a profitable scam; it’s been going on for decades.
$900 printer cartridge?
Yikes.
I can totally see that happening in a busy office though.
Yay! Toner bandits.
I used to work for an office-supply company, and the problem was so widespread (even in the early nineties) that we sent out warning notices with all of our consumable orders.
We got to see how the other half of the scam worked, too. The crooks, armed only with the serial-numbers they’d collected cold-calling rubes, would call us up and place toner orders for pick-up, then simply drop by and walk off with goods worth hundreds of dollars, presumably to resold at a discount.
It worked okay until the customers would start to be billed for consumption above-and-beyond what was considered reasonable per their contracts-- and of course the machines were metered, so it was clear that the toner wasn’t being used in them. Scrutinizing the accounts where this was happening made the extra “pick-ups” pretty obvious, and we began calling back to confirm.
A couple of times, scammers wearing ball-caps and carrying clip-boards to give the impression of being driver/courier types were surprised to find themselves being led away in handcuffs. Ha, ha.
Okay, that’s funny.
Hello, my name is Draelin, and as a young, inexperienced receptionist, I got nailed by this very scam. sigh
I foolishly rattled off the model number of our copier and then, when the “distributing company” called to tell me they had “cheap” toner for us, I told them to go right ahead and send it. It took my multi-office company just over six months to notice the hugely inflated bills.
The funny thing is, in addition to sending us toner (which, by the way, was always exactly the type we needed, never empty, just enormously expensive), this company also sent me all sorts of little kickbacks–first a clock radio, then a walkman, then a boom-box, a VCR, and finally a 27-inch television. Of course, our compliance officer took it away from me and raffled it off at the annual holiday party, but that’s still pretty impressive. To think they were making that much money off us that they could send me a $400 TV.
In the subsequent jobs I’ve had (no, I didn’t get fired, they were very understanding), I take an impish delight in screwing with the “Model Numberers”, as I privately think of them. Like chique, I used to farm them around from person to person–even though every one of those people was me using a different funny voice. 
I’d keep them on hold for five minutes, tell them I’d be right with them, I just had to run to the copier and check, etc. I once told someone I had a Clockwork Series 655321 (very obscure joke, but I found it amusing), a Valjean 24601 (imported from France), and one guy burst out laughing when I told him we had a Babylon 5.
Heh…thanks, Cervaise. Flustering is my business, and business is good.
Now THAT is funny…
The ones who called our office always said, “Hi, we have our usual order ready for you but you need to order now to get our sale price.”
I would usually ask for a number to call them back and they would refuse to give it to me.
That one’s funny too.
It is surprising how many companies fall for that toner scam - over the years I’ve done accounting for several small companies and seen those invoices approved for payment over and over.
There’s another scam that I caught onto while doing Accounts Payable. This gentleman would sell our company advertising space in a minority-geared publication. He’d send an invoice accompanied by a tearsheet showing our ad along with a few others. Since we were eager to recruit minorities we’d been paying him $600/quarter for a while. The problem was that there was no evidence the remainder of the publication existed - just this tearsheet. And he simply would not send us a copy of the whole magazine. You’d think for $600 the customer would rate a complete copy of a $5 publication. When I told him we couldn’t pay without a copy of the whole magazine, he went away pretty fast.
OK Fessie, I got you down for 5 cases of the all purpose toner, now how are you set up for laser cartridges?
If I was in the mood, I’d mess with these slimeballs.
ScamGuy: “Hi, I’m calling from the service center. I need to know the model number of your copier.”:
MBS: “What do you mean? Your service guy was here yesterday and took it to the shop!”
CLICK
ScamGuy: “Hi, I’m calling from the service center. I need to know the model number of your copier.”:
MBS: “Hmmmm…lemme see…it’s a Canon model 666. It’s a helluva copier.”
ScamGuy: "Ha ha! That’s very fun…
CLICK
And, of course, you can’t really sue the bastiches, because they’re spending money as fast as they earn it. Suing them would only line your lawyers’ pockets.
I do think that these people should be prosecuted for fraud or something, though.
We get those calls, and my standard routine is to put them on speaker phone, and then respond: “Oh, you have to call back and ask for Mr. Meoff. First name Jack.” Occasionally they actually do it.