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California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gouging
Posted by rickgrimes on 9/7/21 at 11:00 am60
quote:
A 79-year-old toner salesman was sentenced to four years in prison for running a decades-long, multimillion-dollar scam that caused tens of thousands of small businesses and charities to pay hugely inflated prices for printer cartridges.
Gilbert Michaels of West Los Angeles was accused of utilizing boiler-room telemarketing businesses to dupe victims into paying as much as 10 times the retail price for toner, federal prosecutors said. He was convicted with six others of conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering in December 2019.
Michaels’s operation dates back to the 1970s. Prosecutors say he may have defrauded more than 50,000 victims around the country over the years. In one six-year stretch, prosecutors said Michaels sold $126 million worth of toner to unsuspecting victims.
Gilbert Michaels is accused of utilizing boiler-room telemarketing businesses to dupe victims into paying as much as 10 times the retail price for toner.
Among the victims were a YMCA, a California country club, a Christian preschool in Alabama, a tow-truck company and a steelworkers union local in Kentucky.
LINK
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by Jcorye1 on 9/7/21 at 11:02 am to rickgrimes
quote:
Gilbert Michaels is accused of utilizing boiler-room telemarketing businesses to dupe victims into paying as much as 10 times the retail price for toner.
Yet Ticketmaster/Seat Geek/ect keep on rolling.
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by TigerGman on 9/7/21 at 11:02 am to rickgrimes
That POS tried to run that scheme at my office for years. Almost had a secretary bite on it
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by SlapahoeTribe on 9/7/21 at 11:03 am to rickgrimes
Didn’t tonner cost more than blood?
How could that be a scam???
How could that be a scam???
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by Cosmo on 9/7/21 at 11:04 am to rickgrimes
Do these people not price out supplies at all? Check amazon
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by Hangover Haven on 9/7/21 at 11:05 am to rickgrimes
Did the customers not have the option to shop around..?
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by RogerTheShrubber on 9/7/21 at 11:07 am to rickgrimes
quote:
A 79-year-old toner salesman was sentenced to four years in prison for running a decades-long, multimillion-dollar scam that caused tens of thousands of small businesses and charities to pay hugely inflated prices for printer cartridges.
So, a salesperson and the company agreed to terms and it's illegal?
Weird.
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by SlapahoeTribe on 9/7/21 at 11:09 am to Cosmo
quote:
Do these people not price out supplies at all?
In the corporate world (and government) you tend to only have certain “approved” suppliers. I can’t tell you the money I’ve straight wasted because my company would rather pay 3x the market rate because I have to purchase from one of our “preferred partners.”
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re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by fr33manator on 9/7/21 at 11:10 am to rickgrimes
Ooooo ooooo ooooooo…now do the military industrial complex.
And Congress
And Congress
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by High C on 9/7/21 at 11:13 am to fr33manator
quote:
Ooooo ooooo ooooooo…now do the military industrial complex.
And Congress
Yeah, right. Like that would ever happen.
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by texasmason on 9/7/21 at 11:15 am to rickgrimes
21 arrested. He looks like a guy that would be arrested for a boiler-room scheme.
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by ccard257 on 9/7/21 at 11:23 am to RogerTheShrubber
quote:
A 79-year-old toner salesman was sentenced to four years in prison for running a decades-long, multimillion-dollar scam that caused tens of thousands of small businesses and charities to pay hugely inflated prices for printer cartridges.
So, a salesperson and the company agreed to terms and it's illegal?
from reading the article, it sounds like the salesperson in question pretended to be different supply companies that the victim companies already had contracts with, agreed to sell them toner at the "old" price, but then sent invoices for a "new" inflated price and threatened legal action against companies who complained. so no, I don't think any terms were legitimately agreed to.
quote:
the telemarketers would pretend to be representatives of toner-supply companies many of the businesses already had contracts with. The telemarketers would then tell the victims that the price of toner had increased, but they could buy it at the previous, lower price, prosecutors said.
Believing they were dealing with their regular suppliers, the victims would sign order confirmation forms. IDC would then ship toner to victims along with highly inflated invoices. When the companies would complain, IDC would threaten legal action or to turn them over to collection agencies, prosecutors said. If IDC did agree to take the toner back, it would demand significant “restocking fees,” prosecutors said.
Authorities caught on to the scheme in one case when IDC sent inflated invoices to a southern California storage company that only used typewriters to do business, according to court documents.
This post was edited on 9/7 at 11:25 am
quote:
That POS tried to run that scheme at my office for years. Almost had a secretary bite on it
What did he do? If everyone agreed to the terms, I don't see how this is illegal.
I see clients get letters from companies selling workplace employment posters for an inflated fee. The letters look like they're from the government. I can see how it's easy to not pay attention and get duped, but that's on the buyer. They agreed to the terms.
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by go_tigres on 9/7/21 at 11:55 am to rickgrimes
I dealt with this guy and his companies for years. He had an old school phone sales out that would call companies and act like that companies current toner supplier. Convo went something like this “ hello Ms Office manager, I see here that you should be about ready for a toner reorder. How many would you like in this order? 13? Ok, I’ll get them shipped out.” The toner would ship but instead of these toners costing the $30/ea or so they should cost, this guys company would charge $100,$200,$300 ea. If that company didn’t pay, they’d place them for collections. So, of course, buyers would complain to the BBB or Dunn and bradstreet but that was against the billing company not the sales company so it never raising flags.
There’s another company, tightly associated with this one, that did the same with religious supplies to churches.
There’s another company, tightly associated with this one, that did the same with religious supplies to churches.
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by ThuperThumpin on 9/7/21 at 12:26 pm to Rex Feral
quote:
What did he do? If everyone agreed to the terms, I don't see how this is illegal.
Sometimes they would call just say we are sending you guys your toner order this week. There were no terms or contracts signed. Just a phone call. One of our staff didnt know any better and just said ok figuring it was from our normal supplier. We didnt pay on the invoice and ignored future correspondence.
re: California man sentenced to 4 years for printer toner price gougingPosted by cheobode on 9/8/21 at 1:46 pm to ThuperThumpin
I get one call per year from a toner pirate company saying they are our copier company and they're needing the make and model of our copier.
I just put them on hold until they hang up. Longest running time is over 40 minutes.
I just put them on hold until they hang up. Longest running time is over 40 minutes.
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