Booksellers Report New Twist on Old Scam

A number of booksellers have contacted ABA to report that they recently received phony orders via telephone relay systems developed for use by the hearing impaired. The orders are generally for large numbers of medical books, textbooks, or bibles and usually originate in Nigeria or another African nation.

Booksellers receiving overseas orders that are suspect should report them to the closest local field office of the U.S. Secret Service. For the telephone number of your local field office, go to www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml.

The Secret Service has also posted a warning about similar schemes at www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml.

In the past booksellers have reported receiving handwritten orders via postal mail from Nigeria, accompanied by a check for several thousand dollars, or e-mails and orders placed through a store's online shopping cart, for a large number of books, with the purchaser being based in a foreign country.