The purchasing office at A&M has notified 4,600 suppliers of a scam that misrepresents the university.
Those who do business with A&M are being told to watch out for invalid purchase orders coming from someone not affiliated with the school.
Director of Procurement Services Jeff Zimmerman says he’s seen copies of five phony purchase orders, averaging more than $20,000 dollars.
Zimmerman says it’s a growing problem nationally.
Suppliers are advised to check several things to make sure the purchase order is legitimate.
Zimmerman says if a businessowner has any questions to contact the Procurement office, something that has been done since they sent an e-mail recently.
A&M processes between $195 to $215 million dollars of purchase orders each year.
Click below for comments from Jeff Zimmerman, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver.
The A&M e-mail advisory to its suppliers is below:
The Texas A&M University Department of Procurement Services would like to alert our suppliers of an active ordering scam that involves misrepresentation of Texas A&M by the issuance of an invalid purchase order from an individual not affiliated with the University.
While Texas A&M cannot prevent this fraudulent activity we are currently working with University law enforcement to investigate the matter as we become aware of specific instances. Below are some discrepancies and common traits that can help you identify potential fraudulent activity.
-E-mails with an address that appears to be from Texas A&M but is not a valid University domain, for example @tamu-edu.us <http://tamu-edu.us>
-Phone numbers that do not originate from Texas A&M. Our phone numbers are area code 979 and begin with 845-XXXX, 862-XXXX or 458-XXXX.
-They will provide a shipping address that is not on the Texas A&M campus or in a space leased by the University. For example they might use a local moving and storage company.
-If you ask for a credit application or a tax exempt statement they will not provide one and will reply with a statement similar to “as an educational entity all you need is a purchase order”.
-The department at Texas A&M that they claim to be with may not be a valid department name.
-The quote requests and subsequent purchase orders that we have been made aware of are for large quantities of highly resalable items such as cameras, projectors and other audio/video equipment.
The emails may appear to originate from the name of an actual employee from Texas A&M in order to deceive. The emails and documents such as the purchase order may also contain logos or images intended to look like an official legitimate request.
If you are not familiar with the documents being provided or the content within the messages and documents, please contact us prior to responding or filling and shipping any orders. You may contact the Department of Procurement Services by phone or email, Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Texas A&M University and the Department of Procurement Services values the relationships we have established with our suppliers and appreciate your continued interest in providing a valuable service to the University.