For Suppliers

The latest version of fraudulent email activity involves the attempt to open accounts and lines of credits with suppliers.  Email activity includes sending a copy of an OSU Credit Reference Letter to suppliers in hopes of opening an account and line of credit, from which they will order future goods and/or services.

Note: The Ohio State University will never contact suppliers via email asking to open an account/establish lines of credit by sending a credit reference letter.

If you believe you have received fraudulent communication that appears to be from The Ohio State University, you may forward it to our Purchasing department: stores@osu.edu to verify its legitimacy before responding to the communication or filling the order.  You may also contact the Purchasing department by phone, Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at (614) 292-2694.

There is a current Public Service Announcement that was prepared by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) on August 21, 2014.  It is regarding African Cyber Criminal Enterprise Members using a “School Impersonation” scheme to defraud retailers.  Please click to view the full announcement; or view the FBI presentation on the Purchase Order Scam targeting U.S. companies and universities.

If you believe you have received fraudulent communication that appears to be from The Ohio State University, you may forward it to our Purchasing department: stores@osu.edu to verify its legitimacy before responding to the communication or filling the order.  You may also contact the Purchasing department by phone, Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at (614) 292-2694.

We want to alert you to an active email scam involving purchase orders and request for product quotations that purport to originate from The Ohio State University but are in fact fraudulent.  While the university cannot prevent this illegal activity, we are actively working with law enforcement to investigate these fraudulent email contacts.

We can share some common traits or themes of these fraudulent emails that may help reduce risk to your company becoming a financial victim of this scam:

The email message is poorly written, with misspellings and awkward sentence structure The sender's email address or website link are not authentic to The Ohio State University’s email address

• Fraudulent email address examples:
  • @osu-edu.us
  • @osu-edu.org
  • @osuedu.us
  • @osuedu.org
  • @osu-university.com

If you believe you have received a fraudulent email that appears to be from The Ohio State University, you may forward it to our Purchasing department: stores@osu.edu to verify its legitimacy before responding to the email or filling the order.  You may also contact the Purchasing department by phone, Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at (614) 292-2694.

• The message requests shipment/delivery of products to non-The Ohio State University addresses
• The message may include an attachment that is designed to look like a purchase order, may include a logo or other graphic, and a signature that may look legitimate