In his 52-year promotional products career, John Bagwell has had the displeasure of being scammed once.

He’s not about to let it happen again, and he wants to help prevent other promo pros from getting swindled, too.

That’s why the president of Texas-based distributorship Bagwell Promotions is sharing the details of a recent digital run-in he had with a fraudster.

“If it sounds too good to be true,” Bagwell said, “it probably is.”

A Consistently Patterned Con

The scam had many of the features of what’s become a common trick that crooks are advancing against promo companies.

A ne’er-do-well poses as an actual buyer for a real organization, such as a university, company or even public utility. They then request, through email or website contact form, a quote on a larger number of products, often drinkware or technology items like USBs, speakers or, as in Bagwell’s case, wireless noise-canceling headphones.

Distributor Warns of Sophisticated $170K Scam Attempt https://t.co/lYZF0p8Yes

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) October 5, 2023

In an effort to warn distributors, ASI Media has been documenting the phenomenon in an ongoing run of articles dating back years. Sadly, in certain cases, distributors have been conned out of as much as six figures’ worth of product.

Some industry leaders believe an organized racket or rackets are targeting merch purveyors, with the criminals snaring unwitting promo pros and then selling products they never pay for on the illicit market.

‘Big Red Flags’

As for Bagwell, he received an email from a crook posing as Ed Jeanfreau, who appears to be an actual purchasing manager for D.R. Horton, a Texas-headquartered company that’s reputed to be the United States’ largest home builder.

“I do most of my business off the internet, so it is not unusual for me to get emails or web carts from all over the country,” Bagwell told ASI Media. “I generally can spot the fake ones pretty quickly.”

And he did in this case: The email was riddled with tells that sparked suspicions in Bagwell that the request was bogus.

“Scammers are at it again.” John Bagwell, Bagwell Promotions

“It was for a large number of higher-priced tech items – 500 wireless noise canceling headphones – with no request for an imprint,” Bagwell said. “Also, they requested a credit application. Most legitimate companies don’t ask for that up front.”

Bagwell also was skeptical because the request came from such a big company, seemingly out of the blue. “Rarely would someone like D.R. Horton send out a random email,” said Bagwell. “They would have a promo company that they deal with.”

The email was directed to “sales,” not a particular person – that was fishy – and the supposed buyer didn’t reference a particular model number/headphone they were interested in.

“I routinely get orders from large companies, but they’re usually for a specific product and they have a number or other reference to show they have been on my website,” said Bagwell. “Rarely, though, are the orders for a large number and almost never are they requested without a decoration.”

“I don’t want others to go through what we did.” A #promoproducts distributor that was recently the victim of a scam -- to the tune of more than $60K -- shares lessons learned. https://t.co/coVmrf2e9g @asicentral @ASI_MBell

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) September 28, 2022

Often, scammers Bagwell has encountered use a Gmail address or other non-corporate-sounding account. This crook tried to be a bit cleverer, spoofing an email address to appear as if it really belonged to Jeanfreau/D.R. Horton – “ed.jf@drhortonusa.co.” – a tactic other shrewder criminals have employed, too.

The “.co” tipped off Bagwell.

“The ‘.co’ address gives a website that is not current,” said Bagwell. “A quick Google search shows it is not D.R. Horton.”

A check on https://www.godaddy.com/whois/, which helps show who owns a website domain, indicated that the website domain the criminal was referencing was created on Feb. 21, 2024, Bagwell told ASI Media. “That is a big red flag,” he said. “It also has all contacts redacted. That is not unusual, but someone like D.R. Horton would have their name attached to the registration.”

There was also dodgy grammar in the email message; commas where there should be a period, and a sentence starting with a lowercase letter – not a professional-sounding communication.

Bagwell didn’t call the number given in the email, but suspects “it is a burner phone.” He reached out to D.R. Horton – blameless in the matter, of course – to report the con attempt.

Bagwell said his story is a good reminder to distributors to be vigilant. “Scammers,” he said, “are at it again.”