"About two years ago, I received an unsolicited call from a company asking for a large quantity of copper shipments in a short period of time. The call was from the vice president of Purchasing, and he faxed a purchase order with an unaudited financial statement. The purchasing manager stated that our competition was unable to meet their full requirements, and that they needed prompt delivery for a job on the Alaska pipeline.

"Several things did not make sense and were unusual for our industry. First of all, we do not normally get unsolicited orders directly to the credit department. We have no customers in Alaska or even close to that region. There was no telephone number on the fax, so I called information for the number of this company. I could only reach an answering machine at the listed number. Our competitors were not familiar with this customer, but several had received the same call or fax.

"Actually, this attempt at procuring a large shipment of copper under apparent false pretenses was fairly obvious. A few phone calls and background checks were enough to make this look like a dubious transaction. The financial statement provided was impressive (too impressive), but it was unaudited, making the value of the information worthless on an unknown entity.

"Some bustout attempts will try to play on a familiar name that is close to but not exactly like that of a Fortune 500 company. The ploy may be to make several small-volume orders and pay for them promptly. Then a large order will be placed and left unpaid, with the customer now untraceable."

Thanks to:

James N. Albetta

General Credit Manager

Asarco

New York, New York