Are You Being Scammed?
Okay, we’re all adults here so we should be able to handle the truth. The truth is that if you get an email saying you’ve won the German Postal Lottery or that somebody in Africa wants to give you millions of dollars, you’d be smart enough to immediately recognize it as a scam. However, I’ve heard about some printers lately who have nearly fallen for an equally unlikely pitch just because it has been posed as a request for proposal — in other words, new business that has come knocking without any effort. Free money.
Yes, I know. In this Internet age, business in no longer restricted to geographic areas. If you have a Web presence, you are open to the whole wide world. But ask yourself, why would a missionary in Ghana or a social worker in Nigeria pick your particular Kansas or Idaho or Mississippi print shop out of the 2,720,000 printing companies that pop up when one Google’s “printing companies.” Is your website that good?
I don’t know of any printer who has actually bitten hook, line, and sinker and lost money on a printing-specific scam, but I bet you there have been some. And for anybody who thinks printers might be an unlikely target for Internet scammers, Google comes up with 1,380,000 hits for “printing scams.”
Now, pardon me while I send my banking information to that nice widow in Rwanda who wants me to launder the $3,576.898 (U.S.) her former husband embezzled from the finance ministry. What could go wrong?
Bob: Not really a comment, just hoping you can help. In the September issue, Digital Color article, Color Copy News is mentioned. I would like to contact them, subscribe, but can’t find any information either in the issue or if I try various web addresses. It would be greatly appreciated if you can send me a web or email address for them. Thank you very much. Pete
Great article. Few comments and similar experiences:
We get emails like this often like print 80000 flyers on astrobright paper with just few letter in black ink. First time I got this I got excited because of the legitimity of the email. But then on serious thinking and more digging on the email - found it to be a scam.
So here is one day one of our trade customers calls me and asks me for a quote to do the same job. i.e. 80000 flyers on astrobright - I picked up the phone and called her and she said about the same email. I explained to her about the scam.
So it is true that anybody will fall into the trap, but make sure to collect payment and if you get a cashier’s check - call the bank and verify the check before you lift a finger on the job. Be aware there are lots of scams out there.
Thanks Shawn
printpapa.com
A colleague recently called for my thoughts on this scam. He was asked to print 100,000+ flyers & ship to some 3rd world location. He was actually given a credit card number. Then he was told that he had to ship using a specified shipper & the shipper required CASH payment in advance (that was the tipoff). I told him to check with the bank or credit card company & the card number was stolen. After the materials were shipped, he would have learned that he was out for both the shipping cost ($3000.00 cash) plus the cost of printing. Regards,
Bob, We receive offers for prints jobs at least4-5 times a week. Most are seeking religious printing wanting you to give the exact cost then they will furnish you with a credit card. The first one of these I though WOW, however after contacting the individual and running 2-3 different cards from the same person I smell a rat. We still get these the most recent from Nigera wanting a 150 Bibles. Why they are using relgious printing as the bases for their printing request remains a mystery to me. Lesson learned “If it sounds too good to be true it usually is”.
We’ve received the same 80,000 brochures to ’save the children’ in some nigerian slum. The first time we received it ( 2 years ago) , we designed and sent proofs. The first tip off was that the proofs had placeholder text but they were approved anyway. Then they sent several credit card numbers, requesting $2000 to be placed on each card. When I checked the card numbers were newly opened and/or stolen.
We were only out some time, but of course time is money. I’ve since received several variants on a regular basis. Not surprisingly the ‘from’ information changes every time but it always comes from a throwaway account (yahoo, gmail), always has some religious attempt (God bless you for your help), and is always some rediculous number with some oddball specs (80,000 flyers, yellow and black but they will spec CMYK with 80# gloss book and an aqueous coating, and give dimensions in metric and english units).
Don’t fall for it…