Nothing is more exciting for a niche, growing technology company than to receive an invitation to tender in a procurement assessment for a large international company. Bodi.Me, a leading supplier of fit & size technology to the uniform industry received such an invitation via email from a leading international airline company with over 8,000 employees. The invitation broadly included many industries that would supply a busy airline, including uniforms. When Bodi.Me responded to the request for more information and received additional forms to fill out and return, a series of red flags indicated gale force warnings.
According to statistics compiled by Comprara, an Australian provider of e-applications for procurement solutions, by 2027 over $348 billion will be lost on a global level due to procurement fraud. In the past two years, over 51% of organizations in the world have experienced fraud. The leading method of fraud is the creation and targeted disbursement of fraudulent documents.
The team at Bodi.Me were quick to identify a series of red flags in the documents;
- Misspellings
- Poor grammar
- Pre-payment as a requirement for participation to tender
Phone calls to the individual identified as the contact person for company’s Procurement Services were left unanswered in voice mail boxes. Further research into the paperwork and professed credentials assured the Bodi.Me team that a scammer was indeed after their company and banking information, as well as a $10,000 USD pre-payment.
“Based upon our investigation into this request, we determined the airline’s invitation to tender was a scam, and reported it online,” CEO and founder, Lara Mazzoni commented. “The level of sophistication in fraudulent documentation, emails, and websites is alarming, and we advise any company to do your due diligence when an invitation for procurement arrives in your email. Something too good to be true, often is.”
