How To Avoid Printer Supply Scams

Scammers stalk businesses of all sizes with the hopes of deceiving you and getting your money. They exist across all facets of business, and they certainly haven’t forgotten toner and printing supplies. And not only are print scams fairly easy, but they’re also extremely profitable. 

Printing expenses often go untracked and require routine replenishment, making them an ideal target for scammers. Prepare yourself and your employees by becoming aware of how these scams are typically executed and then put systems into practice that make it difficult, if not impossible, for scammers to be successful.

How Toner Scams and Office Supply Fraud Works

Scammers put in quite a bit of work to make their scams appear legitimate. Here’s what a scam looks like in progress. 

Modern Business Printer Scam Tactics

Toner pirates have thought through the entire process and created workarounds for all of the twists and turns every scenario could take, greatly increasing the likelihood that their victims will pay. But once you know how these scams work — and know your rights — you can defeat these “toner pirates” and other office supply scams. 

Here are a few updates to watch for in 2024 and beyond: 

• Sending you a “free sample” or a heavily discounted item only to charge you a steep price for it after the fact 
• Delaying sending you the invoice until weeks after you’ve received and probably started using the items, so you’ll feel increased pressure to pay
• A scammer will send a free item to a specific employee, but then follow it with unordered merchandise and a hefty invoice, hoping the employee will be too anxious to reveal their “mistake” in accepting the gift

How To Avoid Toner Scams

There are a number of practices you can implement that will prevent toner scams from working on your company. First, tell your staff this: 

1. Do not give away your copier’s serial number, make, or model over the phone
2. Do not give the name of the person responsible for purchasing office supplies away over the phone
3. Do not give detailed information about the organization, including names, equipment details, financials, etc., away in surveys or over the phone
4. Ask for everything — sales pitches, requests, advertising, and the like — in writing
5. Do not commit to anything over the phone, especially from unknown sellers
6. Designate a key operator or another person within your organization to order supplies, and only from approved vendors
7. NEVER pay for supplies you didn’t order. Under the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, unordered items are treated like a gift
8. If you suspect a scam, file a complaint with the FTC and report it to the Better Business Bureau

Additional Best Practices

That list can go a long way, but everyone can have a careless moment. And scammers are very good at trying to get an employee to do what they want. If a fraudulent invoice for a few hundred dollars worth of ink cartridges came across a new, inexperienced staff member’s desk at your organization, are you 100% confident they would spot the scam? 

If you don’t know what supplies you need, how much they generally cost, which ones have been ordered in the past, who you have ordered from in the past, and so on, it’s really easy for a scam to fall through the cracks without attracting any attention. But you can get much better at avoiding fraudulent schemes if you keep a tight leash on your print supplies moving forward. 

How Managed Print Services Can Help

A managed print services provider should be able to offer you automated supply ordering, which relies on sophisticated software to monitor your devices so your provider can send you the correct supplies precisely when they’re needed. That way, supply ordering is taken off your staff’s hands entirely, and any print supply invoice coming from any other company will automatically raise suspicion. 

As a bonus, your managed print services provider should be able to help you increase your security organization-wide while also optimizing and right-sizing your print fleet, providing maintenance and repairs, and saving you money in the process. But there’s more. Click the link below to get our complete guide!