May 28, 2007
Over the years my wife and I have gotten phones calls and postal mail concerning products and services that we never ordered. Generally it has been a call confirming orders for copy machine paper, toner, register tape, etc.
What these scammers generally do is call to confirm an order for supplies, or call and ask for the model of the copy machine in the office. In a few days a package arrives either C.O.D. or with an invoice in the box. Many times the prices of the product in the box are 5 to 10 times what you can get it for at a local office supply store. After about 30 days the owner will receive a demand for payment or harassing phones calls demanding payment. Many times the owner caves in and pays the scammers just to get them off of their back. First of all this is against the law, and of course many of these scammers block the caller ID functions of your phone so you don’t know who is calling (what legitimate business would hide their phone number and business name? answer: NONE!). In most states (and Georgia for sure) if a company sends you something that you did not order you can consider it a gift and you do not have to pay for it (seriously). So if one of your employees accidentally confirms an address or model number of equipment and you get a mystery delivery for office supplies, keep it, don’t pay for it and if you get harassed tell the caller thanks for the free gift. If they persist hounding you via telephone or by mail, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission) – www.ftc.gov and your state attorney generals office. Be diligent and just keep thanking them for the free gift, eventually they will get the picture and stop harassing you. Personally I like free gifts and will endure the scammer’s phone calls. Hey they sent it without me wanting it, so they deserve what they get (nothing).
Luckily my wife and I both own small businesses and I am the only person authorized to purchase supplies for our businesses. All of our contractors or employees know to refer all calls to me and to not confirm anything over the phone (if they do, they already understand that they have to pay for the mistake). We regularly follow up with reminders about this to keep it fresh on our contractor and employees minds.
I have also seen of late another scam; generally it is via postal mail. What comes in the mail appears to be a renewal for an Internet domain we own; it looks official and appears to be an invoice. In actuality if you read the fine print it is a domain transfer agreement to move a website to another domain registrar (last several we have received were from “Domain Registry of America”. One thing a business owner should be aware of is where his or her domain is registered (register.com, gkg.net, network solutions, goDaddy, yahoo, etc.). Personally I see right through the scam as all of our domains are registered at a single domain registrar and I am the one who pays the domain renewals each year. I have found that many business owners have no real ideas to where their domain is registered at and many times will unknowingly write a check to the scammers, and of course this ends up causing all sorts of confusion. Since ICANN created the mandatory domain lock (to prevent unauthorized domain transfers) this scam less effective as it had been in the past. However there are many domain transfer / renewal scammers still trying to trick unsuspecting business owners.
Yet another scam going around via telephone, email and postal mail are the ‘yellow pages” scammers. I get at least one call a week from so-called ‘yellow pages representatives’ regarding online and print yellow pages advertisements. Many times the postal mail I receive looks like a renewal invoice to renew a yellow pages advertisement. Of course these are nearly all bogus; if you have a yellow pages ad in the local phone book you can find the name of the company providing yellow page ad services in the phone book, usually on the first couple of pages. The ‘Internet” yellow pages are nothing more than a scam to get money from you. Be very skeptical and wary (it it walks like a duck but looks like a cat then you can bet it isn’t a duck).
It is sometimes hard as a business owner to know the good from the bad. Many times we have to learn from experience, and many times that costs us our hard earned money. My best advice is to designate one person to authorize all purchases and to keep a list of suppliers and business you purchase products and services from. Educate your employees to not confirm anything with anyone and refer the call to the designated person who does authorize purchases. When it comes to unsolicited phone calls and postal mail be very skeptical and think ‘SCAMMER’ each time you talk to a salesperson or read your postal mail. If you do that chances are good you won’t get scammed. Education and diligence are your best defenses.
About the author
Allen Harkleroad has been managing businesses in various industries for over 16 years both online and brick-and-mortar retail stores. Allen has been bitten by scammers in the past; however, having learned the hard way about scams and scammers he wants to share his knowledge with others so they don’t have to lose money and time dealing with scams. You can use the contact form located on the About tab on this website to contact Allen. Feel free to ask a question or tell a story.
Copyright (c) 2007, Allen Harkleroad, All Rights Reserved