I thought these scams went away years ago but I guess not.

I answer the phone a lot for the small company I work for, and in the past couple of months we have gotten about three different phone calls asking about refilling our copier supplies. We like to do business locally, and I know our supplier personally so I knew these people weren’t legit. But I thought I’d share it with all of you so you don’t get taken by this scam.

When they called our office they tried to talk to me like they knew me, then said, “Can we get the model number of your printer we misplaced it?” I then asked, “May I ask who’s calling?” and one caller actually said, “I’m your worst nightmare, B!&$h” Then hung up. While entertaining, still somewhat scary.

So I looked it up and according to the FTC this is probably what happened:

In the pretender scam, the caller may pretend to be your regular or previous supplier, a replacement, or an “authorized” supplier. By convincing you that the goods or services and prices offered are the same as before, the caller hopes you won’t bring up prices, quantities, and brands. Even if you do, the seller may try to brush you off by saying, “We’ve supplied you in the past, but it’s been a while,” or “The price is the same as last time.” If you insist on a price quote, the seller may give a price that sounds reasonable for one carton but is actually for a single unit, such as “$19.95 in a carton of 10.” Translation: the carton price is 10 times $19.95 – or $199.50.

Avoiding Office Supply Scams