I received what appeared to be a normal, legitimate $425 invoice from from a company called US-Telecom, Inc. (UST) for maintenance of our office equipment, complete with "We appreciate your business" at the bottom. Looking exactly like the invoices we receive for services we have signed up to use, it would have been easy to assume that we had agreed to pay this amount and send them $425.
However, we never heard of this company before and never signed up for their services. I vaguely recall receiving scam invoices like this from them in the past as well. They should be prosecuted!
If a bookkeeper had received this invoice, they would have assumed that this was a legitimate invoice pursuant to a legitimate contract. And since UST is charging to repair our equipment only if it breaks down and we call them for service, they can easily walk away with our $425 with no one the wiser. Since we never contracted for these services, we would never call them even if we needed such services.
I would be happy to help in any way to prevent this criminal company from stealing significant sums from other small businesses by using this scam.
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