Online scammer casts eye on Melbourne printer

An overseas email could have cost Madman Printing $2000 worth of work. What's worse, the culprit is still out there.

When Dustin Pullin, managing director of the Melbourne company received a string of interesting emails from a customer identifying as Adams Hanson, requesting a quote for 80,000 flyers, something just didn't seem right. These suspicions were soon confirmed when Pullin provided a quote of $2000 for the flyers and enquired about Hanson's contact details. Hanson then admitted to being from the US and wanted the flyers picked up and shipped back to West Africa.

"He kept on writing 'God bless you', which is a classic line amongst scammers," Pullin said, "and the fact that he wanted me to process the credit card first made me think there was something dodgy going on. I then spoke to my bank's fraud section and they verified that the guy trying to use the card did not match the name on the card he was trying to use."

Pullin was advised not to proceed with the job on the basis that once the money had been charged, the job would be cancelled by the client and Madman would be left in the lurch.

Pullin isn't sure why his company was chosen, though he has no doubts that other printing companies are at risk. The lesson, Pullin says, is that it can pay to be cynical. "Most small printers would see the email and think 'You beauty, a $2000 job' but it would have cost them."