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News February 20, 2023

Con Artist Targets New England Distributor

It was another iteration of a now common scam in which crooks pose as a buyer for Ohio University and request a large quantity of products for which they never intend to pay.

By  Christopher Ruvo

If “Michael Pidcock” randomly contacts you out of the blue about buying promotional products, there’s a good chance it’s not actually Michael Pidcock.

Confused?

Don’t be: Con artists have been posing as Pidcock, an actual buyer/procurement pro for Ohio University, and targeting promo distributors around the United States with bogus requests for products for at least a couple years now.

ASI Media has reported extensively on the scam attempts and others that follow essentially the same pattern. In them, a schemer fronts as an actual buyer for a real company/organization in an effort to get a promo firm to provide large quantities of logoed or unbranded products for which the crooks will never pay. They then sell the goods on the black market. The contact attempts typically come through email or a distributor’s website form.

A New England-based distributor learned this week that the Pidcock scam in particular is still very much in circulation – something about which every industry firm should be aware.

Speaking to ASI Media, the distributorship’s leader said the firm received a fake order inquiry through the contact form on its website from the would-be hoodwinker who was costuming as Pidcock. The criminal requested a quote on 12,000 double-insulated 21-oz. tumblers.

“Kindly provide your company credit application form, with a quote and lead time,” the message read. “We need these items for fundraising and we are interested in working with your company. Terms - Purchase Order - Net-30 Payment Terms. This will enable us to submit a purchase order upon approval.”

Something seemed fishy, and the distributor recalled ASI Media articles about the scams. A little online searching revealed the ASI articles detailing past Pidcock-posing scams and the distributorship knew for certain they’d been zeroed-in on by a crook.

For sure, there were some tells in the message, too. The email address does not match the address of the real Michael Pidcock, though it was cleverly disguised to look legit – being procurement@ohio-edu.education.

Another notable subterfuge was that the phone number given used an area code that would be local to Ohio University. Still, certain language in the email, including that it didn’t refer to the distributor’s company in particular but rather just “your company” was a red flag.

“We did not process anything or even reply,” the distributor leader said, adding some advice to the industry: “Always do due diligence for any new requests.”

In writing about these scams, ASI Media has agreed to keep distributors’ information anonymous when requested so as to not jeopardize any potential investigations, among other things.  

Sadly, some distributors have been duped by the cons. In certain cases, they’ve sustained losses in the five-figure range to over $100,000 as a result of fulfilling orders for which the criminals never paid. Drinkware and certain tech items, including speakers, have been among the more common product requests, sometimes but not always in quantities in the range of 10,000 or so.

Some industry executives believe that the rash of scam attempts following a similar pattern indicate that a well-organized racket is aggressively targeting the promo market.