Bogus publishing companies and bill-collecting operations have college librarians across the country reading up on a new subject: financial scams.
Last July, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Pinacle Publishing and MDSC Publishing—two lucrative scamming operations—for using illegal telemarketing maneuvers against a number of institutions, including several college libraries.
The FTC asserted that the companies pretended to have preexisting business relationships with librarians, referred to nonexistent purchase directories and pretended to have lawyers that would collect on fake accounts if the libraries refused to pay them.
Detective Staff Sergeant Barry Elliot of Phonebusters—a Canadian agency that keeps tabs on telemarketing scams—said fraudulent companies are harassing libraries about orders that were never placed, often using tape recordings of false “order confirmations” and calling under the guise of being lawyers. The libraries also get misleading invoices and unordered materials in the mail, Elliot added.
Rick Anderson, director of resource acquisitions at the University of Nevada at Reno, traced his ongoing experience with scams back to when he began as director of acquisitions for the Jackson Library at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro eight years ago.
“It’s gotten to the point where I can recognize the voices of these people,” Anderson said of the scammers. “They most often try to call during late hours, hoping to reach student employees.”
In one instance, Anderson said, a woman told a student employee she required confirmation for a deadline and pressed the student to confirm the order on the spot. The unfamiliar company later sent a directory with a $500 bill.
“I’m sure that Duke and many other large, more wary libraries have never been fooled, but I would bet that almost every library in the country has been targeted at least once,” Anderson said.
Nancy Gibbs, head librarian of the acquisitions department at Perkins Library, said she is not aware of any scams at Duke.
“I think we do a very good job of working with reliable vendors that we know and trust,” Gibbs said. “We have a record of everything we buy.”
Gibbs added that she does not understand how scams swindle other schools’ libraries out of money.
But many schools have been so ill-affected that they have set up websites advising libraries about how to detect and avoid scams. Iowa State University’s website features a page with a list of the scamming methods fake companies employ and tips staff members can use to avoid being duped when they get suspicious phone calls or bills.
Elliot said communication and strict ordering procedures are the most important steps libraries can take to prevent themselves from falling victim to scams. He also emphasized the need for library staff to think carefully about every financial request they receive.
“The bottom line is that when someone phones up, it’s fairly difficult to screen the information they give you or verify their legitimacy,” he said. “Do not be coerced into believing that you have to pay any bills that you have not heard of.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.