In the past few months the industry has been awash in stories of print buying scams that are leaving printers on the hook. I received an alarming phone call recently from Betty at Harbour Printing in Mississauga. She wants to get the word out on some buyers from Montreal posing as a marketing group. The "buyers" are getting work done for a Montreal-based company that specializes in designing and distributing printed menus for restaurants. The jobs get printed and shipped and payment never comes.

Betty was burned and apparently, after some digging, she's discovered she's not the first to be taken in by this group. She fears they're moving west from Montreal, seeking new victims.

Usually, searching for the perpetrators of these scams leads to dead ends, and it's seldom worth the cost of pursuing legal action, so the transaction gets written off as bad debt. The printing industry is notorious for exposing itself to bad credit risks. Does your company carry out extensive credit checks on new customers?

In tough economic times, businesses are willing to take on any work they can get. But beware, because there are crooks around every corner willing to take advantage of desperate situations.