SERIALST readers:

Apologies for cross-posting, but I have a heads-up regarding what looks
like another vendor scam.

Today I received a "collection notice" from Credit Mediators, Inc.
(CMI).  It referenced an outstanding invoice from Thomson Scientific in
the amount of $416.90, and directed us to send a check within 48 hours
-- but the check was to be made payable to CMI, not to Thomson.  This
smelled very, very scammy to me, so I called my rep at Thomson to see
what was going on.  He said he'd never heard of CMI and asked me to fax
a copy of the notice to him so that he could have his people look into
it.  They're doing so now.

In the meantime, I called CMI and spoke with someone named Ben Roberts.
Our conversation reminded me of a similar conversation I once had with a
certain "Mrs. Larson" at "Pentium Capital" a year or so ago; he was
aggressive, unhelpful, unwilling to answer the most basic questions, and
unwilling to direct me to others at his company who might be able to
answer them.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Thomson.  It's possible that they
really did engage the services of CMI to collect on an old invoice.  But
it seems highly unlikely.  Normally a vendor or publisher will just call
me up and say "Hey, why hasn't this invoice been paid yet" rather than
ask a third party to send a collection notice that doesn't include a
copy of the invoice (or even cite an invoice number) and that asks for
the money to be sent to that third party rather than the publisher to
whom it's owed.

Although I'm still waiting for word back from Thomson Scientific, I
thought it would be worthwhile to send a heads-up in case other
listmembers have received similar mailings in the last day or two.  Once
I know for sure what's going on, I'll send out a quick update message.
In the meantime, you all might want to check with your staff and make
sure no one is expediting payment on one of these notices.

----
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
(775) 784-6500 x273
rickand@unr.edu