This morning we had a toner delivered to our office by a courier. This is pretty common, but the delivery came from a company in Toronto, and we deal with a company localy in Calgary. The toner was addressed attention to a newer assistant, and was for one of our printers.
I was suspicious because this was not our regular company and there was no invoice. We called the company in Toronto and asked them how much the invoice was for. They said $450. We said there must be some mistake and we would ship the toner back.
I then phoned our local supplier and asked their price of the toner that was sent. They said $130. I was suspicious from the start that this was a scam. I am sure someone phoned our assistant and said they were doing a survey or something and asked what type of printers we use. Then they send the toner and the inflated bill. Many companies pay their bills pretty routinely, but we are a small enought company that we scrutinize ours. I have asked the assistant to not give out information in the future.
Once I was pretty sure this was a scam I just put the toner on the shelf. I am not sure what we will do with it, but we are not sending it back until the company in Toronto makes quite a fuss (if they do). I’m not sure if what the company did in Toronto is illegal, or just unethical.
I don’t know Canadian law, but I think in the US if you get anything in the mail you didn’t order, it is considered a “gift” and you can do with it as you like.
Request a purchase order number from the scammers. That ought to shut them up.
Thanks Duke of Rat. I hadn’t seen that thread. I can see where this must be one of the easist scams going. We get toner supplies every week, on only questioned this delivery because of the address.
I get a lot of calls from vendors asking about what kind of ribbons or toner we use in our printers. They’re usually fly-by-night boiler-room operations, and we’d never do business with them.
I quickly get rid of them by telling them we’ve recently converted over to a paperless office. Sometimes I get a few questions of interest, but usually they hang up pretty quick after that. (grin)
I got a few of those calls working for a small company in town about 10 years ago. The scammers are counting on busy folk who don’t pay that close attention - and I’m sure they catch more than enough.
That scam is more than 20 years old; I remember it from my first jobs out of college. Advice to anyone: if someone calls asking about model numbers, toner brands or anything else - hang up or, even better, tell them you do not have any of the equipment they ask about. Use terse language that cannot be interpreted as anything resembling an order. If you cooperate at all they will ship to you and will even follow up with collections, possibly with some success. If you’re rude, they’ll harrass you. I once had a guy who, when asked, told me the name of his company was the guy with the big dick company. I’ve had people ask to speak with my supervisor because I was rude. Just tell them you ain’t got none!
I got a call from one of these guys fishing for information. I didn’t want to just blow him off, as there was the outside chance he was legit, but if he were legit, he’d never have been on my phone in the first place. I’m a tester for a video game company. I’m honestly not sure why I even have a phone. The only person who ever calls me on it is the guy back in CD mastering who doesn’t want to walk the twenty feet it would take to come and tell me my discs have been burnt. The conversation went something like this:
Him: Hi, I’m from ScamCo, I’d like to talk to you about your order to replace your toner cartridges.
Me: Sorry, you’ve got the wrong guy. This is the QA department, we don’t handle orders for office supplies.
Him: Well, can you transfer me to the person who does?
Me: Geez, I’m not really sure who that is.
Him: Okay, can you transfer me to the receptionist?
Me: I don’t really know how to do that.*
Him: Do you know anything about the company you work for?
Me: Nope! I’m totally incompetent, but they still pay me anyway!
Him: Heh. Me too. Okay, thanks.
Me: Bye!
The best part was the looks I got from the office mates who only overheard my end of the call.
I have been in IT/MIS for 14 years now and scams involving paper/printer supplies was already old when I started. I had one job where our operator gave out the info and I had to deal with the AR person for the supply company. It took a few days to straighten it out and they paid for the return. They even had a fake PO number that thankfully we had already used for non-office supplies 3 years earlier. They had only “Verbal Confirmation”. The Operator got much wiser to answering cold call questions after this incident. I understand that sometimes it is not even the company itself but an unethical salesperson.