Office Supplies Scams and Your Small Business | Federal Trade Commission

Learn how office supplies scams happen and how your small business can avoid them. In an office supplies scam a scammer sends office supplies to a small business hoping that they pay it without noticing that no ordered them. Or sometimes, they don’t send anything but an invoice. Knowing how office supplies scams work will help you protect your business. Learn more at https://www.ftc.gov/smallbusiness. ---------------------- Transcript: Scammers know your business needs supplies. So they send them to you and hope you pay and not notice that you didn't order those cleaning products or office supplies. Or you may get an invoice and no products at all. So before you pay any invoice, check it out to be sure you actually placed that order. Oh, and if you get merchandise you didn't order, the law says you can keep it as a free gift. Learn how to spot scams against your small business and talk to your colleagues about it too. Learn more at ftc.gov/smallbusiness. ---------------------- The Federal Trade Commission deals with issues that touch the economic life of every American. It is the only federal agency with both consumer protection and competition jurisdiction in broad sectors of the economy. The FTC pursues vigorous and effective law enforcement; advances consumers' interests by sharing its expertise with federal and state legislatures and U.S. and international government agencies; develops policy and research tools through hearings, workshops, and conferences; and creates practical and plain-language educational programs for consumers and businesses in a global marketplace with constantly changing technologies. Comment Moderation Policy We welcome your comments and thoughts about the information on this page. If you do have something to say, please be courteous and respectful to other commenters. We won't routinely review any comments before they are posted (except for ones that contain urls and profanity), but we will delete any comments that: 1) contain spam or are off-topic 2) use vulgar language or offensive terms that target specific groups or contain personal attacks 3) are sales pitches or promotions 4) have urls or links to commercial sites 4) spread clearly misleading or false information or 5) include personal information, like home addresses

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What you post online could have an impact on people in the real world. The Federal Trade Commission deals with issues that touch the economic life of every American. It is the only federal agency with both consumer protection and competition jurisdiction in broad sectors of the economy. The FTC pu