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News September 07, 2023

A $26K Con: The Pidcock Poser Victimizes Another Distributor

A fraudster fronted as a real buyer for Ohio University – Michael Pidcock – and tricked a distributor into providing about 7,000 branded flash drives. It’s become a common scam aimed at industry firms.

By  Christopher Ruvo

It seemed like a sweet sales win.

It turned out to be a swindle.

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And now, a Midwest-based promotional products distributor is warning others to be leery of falling prey to a fraudster that duped the firm into fulfilling a $26,000 order for approximately 7,000 Ohio University-branded USB flash drives – products for which the crook never intended to pay.

“We’re usually very good at spotting scams, but our defenses dropped this time around and this got through,” said a business development professional with the distributorship. ASI Media is keeping the company name and business development pro’s identity anonymous at their request.

Bad Timing

An unfortunate set of circumstances put the distributorship in prime position to be victimized.

Ohio University was a client of the distributorship, but business with the education institution had lagged of late. The business development pro felt it was time to get things back on track. To that end, he’d recently reached out to a purchasing leader at the university in an effort to rekindle the relationship.

A couple of weeks or so after the approach, an individual identifying himself as Michael Pidcock – a real purchasing manager at Ohio University – contacted the distributorship through digital message. He expressed an interest in buying OU-branded flash drives.

“I looked up ‘Michael Pidcock’ on LinkedIn and saw he worked in purchasing for OU, and with this inquiry coming shortly after I’d reached out and OU having been a client, it just didn’t strike me as suspicious,” the business development pro shares.

Unfortunately, the inquiry had come from a crook posing as Pidcock. A scammer or scammers have, for at least two years, been advancing the same scheme against distributors – essentially using Pidcock’s identity to try to place orders for products they’ll never pay for and ultimately sell on the black market.

ASI Media has reported at length on the phenomenon in an effort to warn the promo industry. The real Pidcock, who’s not involved in the scams, is aware of the posturing in his name; ASI Media contacted him for comment but there had been no response as of this writing.

Some distributors have spotted the scams before fulfilling the orders. Others have been hoodwinked, resulting in financial losses.

Sadly, the Midwest distributor in this case fell into the latter category. A key reason for that was that the crook did a good job of painting a veneer of validity.

He seemed to know the promo ordering process and act as a real buyer would. For instance, he was specific on the USB type he wanted, submitted a proper art file for the logo, and told the distributor that he needed to get approval on a design change the promo firm had suggested. Furthermore, he didn’t come off as overeager; he had the presence of mind to refrain from instantly submitting a purchase order once he had the distributorship on the hook.

“There must have been 20 email exchanges,” the BD pro told ASI Media. “The sales rep I had handed the order off to even felt at one point that the order was starting to stall, so I reached out to help get things going.”

A Bit of Luck

Eventually, the crook submitted a purchase order. It was doctored to look like a real OU PO and the distributorship didn’t spot the fake. The firm fulfilled the order, shipping the flash drives to an intermodal transportation center in Columbus, OH.

It was there at the transportation center that the distributorship finally had a bit of luck go its way.

According to the business development pro, a leader at the intermodal facility had become wise to the con man, who apparently had fraud-obtained products sent to the center and shipped out previously – without paying a shipping bill and thereby drawing the attention of the center’s brass.

In discussion with the leader from the facility, the distributorship learned that the products it provided had likely been solicited by a scammer – a fact that was further evidenced by ASI Media articles the distributorship subsequently came across.

Realizing the order was bogus, the distributorship took back the flash drives and as of this writing was trying to find a way to recoup some of its loss, possibly through a third-party seller/buyer or a direct sale to Ohio University.

“We’ve been in discussion with OU about them possibly buying the items at cost,” the business development pro said.

Tips To Keep From Getting Conned

In hindsight, there were tells that could’ve been tip-offs that the order for flash drives made to the Midwest distributor was a scam, the business development pro who works for the firm said. He cited the following as tips for other distributors based on his lessons learned.

Make Sure the Email Address Is Legit: The scammer’s email address was made to look like a genuine Ohio University email but was not. Instead of ending in an “@ohio.edu” it was “@ohio-edu.org.” A subtle difference, but potentially enough to raise suspicion. Whenever possible, confirm the email address of the person purporting to be contacting you. Ways to do this include checking on the actual company/institution website for contact information and/or looking at past legitimate emails if you’ve interacted with the person previously.

Have a Phone Conversation or Two: “You should steer clear of doing everything through email/digital communication,” the BD pro said. “You definitely have a better chance of spotting that something’s off with a phone conversation.”

Obtain Secondary Verification: If he had the chance to do it again, the business development professional would have directly contacted an additional authority in purchasing beyond just “Pidcock” at Ohio University to confirm the order was legitimate.

Adhere To Safeguard Protocols: “Since we thought this was OU, we didn’t run this back through credit approval, as we would for a new customer,” the pro said. Doing so may have proved a saving grace.

Analyze the Purchase Order: While the PO submitted appeared legitimate at a glance, a closer inspection might have raised questions that would have indicated a scam was afoot. For instance, the phone number on the PO was not an Ohio University number. And, if the order slip had been compared to past POs the distributorship had received from the education institution, the promo team may have realized the difference, thereby triggering them to consider if the deal was genuine.

Request a Substantial Deposit: It’s unlikely the scammer will proceed if you insist on them putting up some money for the order to move forward.

Pay Attention to Where the Items Are Being Shipped: Ohio University’s main campus is in Athens, OH. It has satellite locations elsewhere in the Buckeye State, but none directly in Columbus. The fact the “buyer” wanted the goods shipped to an intermodal transportation facility in the state capital could’ve been a red flag.

Know the Scam Is Out There & How It’s Evolving: While requests for large quantities of blank products in the past were a tip-off that an order could be bogus, scammers have taken to asking for branded items in an apparent attempt to lend their approaches a greater appearance of authenticity. It’s not hard for crooks and their crews to wipe off the imprints if they want to, distributors who’ve encountered the scam have said.

Tech items, including flash drives and speakers, have been among the more common product requests from the scammers. Drinkware has been a focus, too. In February 2023, a New England-based distributorship received a request for 12,000 double-insulated 21-oz. tumblers from the fake “Pidcock.”