Rotting Yellow Pages
The above photo was taken in a South Dade office building. That stack of Yellow Pages directories has been sitting there untouched for about three months now.
So when was the last time you picked up a physical Yellow Pages directory to find someplace to spend your money? Yeah, I bet it’s been a while. Right now, more and more telephone directory ad budgets are being transferred directly to online search. Have you cancelled Yellow Pages print directory advertising? Are you shifting more dollars online?
]]>
When you want banners, vehicle wraps, interior graphics, talk to us about getting it done right, done on time and under budget. We know the ins and outs of large format printing and design.
]]>
We custom design and print t-shirts for events and everyday use. Whether you need 10 staff shirts or 1,000 attendee shirts, we’ll get the job done right for you.
]]>Ad creatives, designers, animators, directors, illustrators and more have taken time out to dress up their favourite worst feedback from clients, transforming quotes that would normally give you a twitch, into a diverse collection of posters.
]]>
Proud winner of the Space Florida Nano Satellite Launch Challenge logo design contest. This winning design will be painted on the side of launch vehicles and shot into space.
That’s right, to infinity and beyond!!!!
]]>
- You receive an unsolicited e-mail quote request.
- You respond with a quotation or ask for more information.
- Your quote will be accepted, immediately, no questions asked. They will supply you with credit card billing info.
- An “emergency” will come up and you will be asked to prepare the job for delivery to somewhere far, far away. I was asked to ship a supposed order to Sweden this morning.
- They provide a “recommended shipping company” contact email for you to get shipping costs. Typically a gmail, hotmail or yahoo email address.
- Shipping company quotes some huge sum. You are asked to charge the shipping, taxes and printing/product charges under one bill to a credit card.
- You go ahead and charge everything to the credit card.
- You are asked to pre-pay the shipping by Western Union Money Order upon pick-up by the shipper.
- Days later, the credit card is charged back to you. You are out whatever it cost you for the printing/product, your time and whatever you paid the shipper. The shipping company is bogus and is no doubt keeping some scammer drunk, fat and happy.
- Giveaways: The scammer never mentioned any artwork, just accepted my quote and asked me to proceed. Like that’s gonna happen… Religious messages, signing as Reverend or Minister and church-related jobs seem to be common in this type of scam.
• If you’ve got a scammer email, enter it in the comments so other printers may find it with a Google search… And please, feel free to pass around this link and “Like” this post (below) so other printers become aware and we can put these scammers out of business. Here’s a short URL to use on Twitter http://bit.ly/10nyhKL
• Don’t use your real email account when replying to scammers.
What to do about this?
Report these scammers to their email providers. Most email providers, including Gmail, urge you to report suspicious emails and scams. Reporting a suspicious message will help block that user from sending more emails and help stop future scams. Forward the scam email to abuse@gmail.com with full headers displayed.
February 2013 update: It appears that 891 Davis Street in San Francisco is a parking lot
Printer scam flyer looks like this
And this is the flyer artwork they will send you if it gets that far… It will be a low-res PDF file.
July 6, 2010 update: Well, well, well… the scammers are out in force. Just received an email from the actual person at the Bentley Drive address in Warrington, PA 18976. They are, needless to say, rightfully incensed about the use of their address. Please be advised the people in Warrington have nothing to do with this scam and have referred the matter to their local police department.
Scammer name: Rev. James Mallons, 210 Sterilin Avenue, Osborne, Sweden
Scammer email: jmallons@gmail.com
Scammer bogus shipper email: smartshippingline@gmail.com