Print management firm Print Solutions in Adelaide has been the target of an international money scam involving stolen credit cards, fraudulent print quotes and requests for freight charges.
Chris Doak, owner of the South Australian print broker told ProPrint he is now $5000 out of pocket after scammers from Ghana, Africa requested a quote on 100,000 A4 flyers and paid $6500 for the job with a stolen credit card.
The scammers had transferred the correct sum to Print Solutions’ bank account before Doak ordered the job from his printer in Adelaide and paid $5000 for the printing. The bank then informed Doak that the credit card money was stolen and would not be paid.
Prior to the job being completed, the scammers then requested an additional 350,000 print run to the tune of $19k, they put the money in, but Commonwealth Bank recovered the funds.
The scammer Tim Smith, from Fiji – the pseudonym Doak had been corresponding with – requested the company paid thousands of dollars worth of freight charges directly to a bank account in Ghana, Africa, to ship the print to its destination.
Doak quickly realised the quote was part of a larger scam after a printer in Melbourne was also contacted by the scammer under the same Tim Smith alias.
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According to Doak, the Vic printer noticed the crims left a smoking gun on the website enquiry by forgetting to erase Doak’s contact details, he determined the quote was fraudulent before ordering the job.
Since discovering the print quote was a scam, Doak has been in contact with the South Australian Police, ScamWatch, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank, all of whom he says are ‘very slow’ in dealing with the issue.
Doak told ProPrint Commonwealth Bank has since recovered the stolen $19k from his bank account; however $6,500 from the previous order remains in his ownership.
“The bank have taken the $19,000 from me but not the first amount yet. It has been very slow moving and I’m not sure how many people are still getting sucked into it,” says Doak.
“In the end I am going to be thousands out of pocket, half of the printing was already done before I realised what was happening.”
To add salt to the wound, Doak says he will not see a cent back of his losses through insurance, as the fine print reads ‘over the phone’ transactions are not covered by his policy.
“I’m lucky I didn’t rush it and it wasn’t all printed, because I’m not covered by insurance due to taking the credit card details over the phone. Authorities have been so blasé about it, and it seems no one is onto these scammers right now so they could be targeting someone else,” adds Doak.
“Targeting printers is the perfect plan as many businesses require a bank transfer before a job is completed, and as the game is getting tougher printers are more willing to fulfil any enquiry they get.”
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