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Beware of Office Supply Scams The cost of putting black ink on white paper makes a lot of small business owners see red. With ink cartridges for some printers costing as much as $60 to $80, business owners naturally want to find ways to keep costs down. That fact makes scam artists see green. Money-green. And apparently they are making plenty of money at your expense. According to Senator Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, print toner and office supply scams are bilking small business owners out of an estimated $200 million a year. "This is a remarkably widespread problem," said Bond, who is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small business. "The bottom line on these scams is that small businesses and non-profit entities are shipped low-quality office supplies that they did not order at grossly inflated prices." The problem, considering the sophistication of most small businesses today, is surprisingly widespread, too. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently filed complaints against 12 companies for alleged telemarketing scams involving office supplies. The FTC estimates that just one of these companies alone was responsible for defrauding over 23,000 small businesses and non-profit entities. One of the tricks used by telemarketers is to call small businesses and tell them the price of toner is about to go up, but that they (the telemarketer) can offer them a bargain if they order now. In one such case, Senator Bond noted, the small business was told they'd get a carton of toner at a special low price. What the telemarketer shipped was a single toner cartridge… and a bill for $549 for the cartridge plus $60.40 for shipping and handling. The business had been paying $371 for a carton of four toner cartridges. Shipping inferior, remanufactured cartridges in place of new cartridges is another ploy frequently used by scam artists. To help small businesses avoid such scams, the FTC is launching an initiative called Project Boss, which is an educational program designed to use multiple methods of contacting small businesses to alert them to the risks and teach them how to avoid getting scammed. The web is one of the tools the agency is using to help alert small businesses to the dangers. You can read about some of the problems, and ways to avoid them at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/supplies. About the author
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