How to create a better office environment with furniture, supplies, and products

One way to make office supplies more expensive is to buy cheap or bogus products from an office supply scammer. Sometimes when dealing with a scammer your goods may not come at all. Other times you may get the promised supplies but they may be poor quality or arrive in the wrong amounts. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers some tips for dealing with office supply scams.

Myth: I can’t get scammed because I always buy from the same dealer.

Fact: Often how office supply scammers work is by calling you up and saying that they are your regular supplier. It can be hard to tell the difference unless you have an up close and personal relationship with your office supplier. Sometimes a scammer will call you up and say that there is a one-time sale or even a freebie if you buy another product.

One main type of scam is the fake invoice scam.

With fake invoices an individual will send your office invoices for unordered or unshipped goods or services.

All a scammer needs is one employees address, name, and phone number and it’s an easy scam to pull. Once a scammer has all the basics they may send supplies no one ever ordered and secondly (or only) send off an invoice (but weeks later to confuse people).

In almost all cases the supplies are going to be priced far over market value and because the invoice arrives late it can be tough to remember who ordered what and by then the supplies may be somewhat or all the way used up. This is also in conjunction with the fact that you’ve probably recently received a real invoice lately from your real supplier – if confusion abounds you may pay the fake invoice instead of the real one.

In a case like this don’t pay for supplies that arrived via a fake order and with a fake invoice. Scammers have been known to send fake collection bills and past-due notices but if you pay you open your company up to further scams.

What to do: The FTC says don’t pay for or even send back unordered supplies. “By law, it’s illegal for a seller to send you bills or dunning notices for unordered merchandise, or ask you to return it — even if the seller offers to pay for shipping.”

Be sure to have a designated supply buyer at your office. This should be someone capable of keeping exact records. This buyer should also be savvy enough to know how to verify that invoices, supplies ordered, and supplies arrived all match perfectly. Lastly make sure employees ignore telemarketers. The FTC advises to train employees to say, “I’m not authorized to place orders. If you want to sell us something, you must speak to ______________ and get a purchase order."

For more information on other scams and ways to fight back visit The Federal Trade Commission page on office supply scams.