A criminal posing as a buyer for a California-headquartered company that produces frozen Mexican food for grocery stores around the United States and Canada tried to con Hopkins Printing, but the Ohio-based firm was wise to the would-be swindle.

Now, leaders at the company are warning other print and promotional product purveyors to beware of the scam.

In an online submission form, the scammer identified themself as “Jason Benjamin, Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Projects” at Ruiz Foods. The inquirer asked for a quote for 2,000 40 oz. stainless-steel tumblers and requested net 10 payment terms, saying they were “looking to set up an account with your company.”

Still, Hopkins Printing has fielded more than a few fishy requests along similar lines, and this one felt off, too.

The out-of-the-blue request for a sizable fulfillment, the ask for payment terms on a first order and the fact that the email address given didn’t line up with types typically used by Ruiz Foods were red flags. So was the fact that, after a little digging, Hopkins Printing couldn’t identify a Jason Benjamin working at Ruiz Foods – at least not under the title presented in the online order request form.

“It looks like this may be a real purchasing agent but not with this company,” said Tom Broadbent, a business development specialist at Hopkins Printing.

Hopkins Printing didn’t fulfill the order. Had it done so, however, the illicitly operating recipients would have taken the product and never paid for it, leaving the company on the hook for the sizable bill.

The attempted rip off follows a pattern of scam attempts that have been on the rise in the promo products industry in recent years. They involve scammers posing as buyers for real universities, businesses, nonprofits and other organizations. The aim is to trick industry professionals into providing what often amounts to five or six figures’ worth of products for which the con artists will never pay.

In this case, Ruiz Foods is a legitimate company that’s been in business since 1964. With facilities in California, Texas and South Carolina, Ruiz Foods operates under the brand names El Monterey, Tornados and Ruiz Food Service, employing more than 4,000 people, according to its website.

For sure, the company would make a nice client to have – part of the bait crooks use to draw unwitting print and promo pros in. Ruiz Foods is a victim here, too, as its identity is being exploited by fraudsters.

While Hopkins Printing was savvy to the scam, other industry companies have been victimized, sometimes sustaining six-figure losses. Even seasoned professionals with decades of experience say variations of this scam have been so tricky that they were nearly taken in.