One of the things that becomes readily apparent if you are a new, or small, or both, business is that you are an automatic target for scammers – from the “Nigerian Prince” to “No-risk trial” and everything in between. I was always proud of our staff at Desert Crucible in their judicious but firm handling of these matters.
Consider:
- Our sweet but savvy Receptionist fielded this telephone call:
“Hi! This is Fred from Ben’s Mechanical Repair. I was at your shop last week and we ordered a replacement motor for your sandblaster. The motor just came in, but I have misplaced the Work Order. I need your OK to invoice this out so I can drop by and deliver it.”
“Can you tell me who placed the order?”
“Oh,… I forget his name. You know….It was the guy in charge of the machines – the sweaty guy in the back.”
“That would be me.”
Click…….. Bzzzzzzzz.
- Another scam was the scammer would assemble a reasonable-appearing order for cleaning supplies – plastic buckets, brushes, cleanser, etc.—usually under about $50 worth of stuff, and leave it at the front door with a listing of what was included (but with no indication who the vendor was), and without having anyone sign for it. A few weeks later an invoice for the items would arrive in the mail, along with a statement (no telephone number or email address on either document), and a return payment envelope.
Of course the scammer’s gamble was that this statement was for a small amount of money and would just be placed in the pile of bills to be paid and would go through unnoticed.
We would instead send a note in the return envelope (no check) indicating that we had not placed the order and we did not want the items, and they had left us with no information to contact them, but that we had kept the order intact in the box they delivered it in, and it was kind of in the way, and we would appreciate their picking it up right away.
No one ever showed up.
This scenario occurred several times, with different items. It finally stopped after we included this note in the return pay envelope (always to a different address than before):
“We did not order these items, and are thus not required, under law, to pay for them. We have donated them to the Casa de los Ninos children’s crisis nursery on your behalf. You may want to declare them as a charitable donation on your tax return.”
- Another one:
“Hi, this is Kendall from (mumble) Office supply. Could you please grab a quick look at your copy machine and give me that model number?”
“No.”
“No? Why not?”
“Because then you will send me paper and toner that I haven’t ordered and don’t need, and follow up the delivery with an invoice that I won’t pay. Neither of us wants that hassle.”
Click…….. Bzzzzzzzz.
Peggy Detmers says
LOVE those replies! When I get those I often ask, “Hello Sir, did you mean to call our FBI field office?” CLICK!!!!