With the unlimited amount of phone calls and emails you receive a day it can be hard to keep track of who you talked to and what they do for you. Scammers take advantage of this and use it for their own benefit. You can’t protect yourself if you are not aware of the variety of different schemes some people will throw at you.
At Rhyme, we know this and that’s why we want to ensure that your organization is aware of the potential scams that go on in our industry.
What To Look For If You Get A Call About Toner
Toner and printer ink related schemes have been going on for years and we work with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to make note of all the businesses doing this. We recently became aware of an organization that has been soliciting some of our clients. On BBB’s website, under Office Supply Sales by Deceptive Marketing, a complaint was filed against Distribution Service Center, phone number 888-639-8115.
The scammer will call in hopes to receive a newer employee on the line that may be unaware of these practices. They will typically state they are from our warehouse and that there has been a price increase in our toners. If the information about the printer or machine model is provided they will send invoices and toners of low quality or even the incorrect type. We want to ensure you that Rhyme won’t ever call about our toners going up in price or ask about the serial/model number of your equipment.
How can you protect yourself?
Make sure your staff knows who’s in charge of ordering office supplies and whom their correct vendor is. That way you will avoid confusion of who is supposed to order what and from where. Use common sense; if you gather all the facts (company name, website, phone number) you should be able to identify if something is real or not. If you receive any calls of this nature take the name of the representative down, phone number and any other information your able to obtain.
With this information we can make the BBB aware of the potential scammer. Lastly, if you have been receiving a lot of sales calls recently, you can get your business on the “no call” list. For more information on other scam alerts or more tips on how to avoid falling for them, visit the Better Business Bureau's website.
For more information contact your Client Manager or call our office at 800-362-4333.
For more tips on dealing with scams see:
| Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks |