Part supplier scammer

[Chimaera]

Hi EEVBlog,

First time posting, thought this experience was worth sharing.

My company received an unsolicited part quote from SenPro Electronics (senproelectronics.com) claiming to have a large number of microprocessors in stock for a very good price.  When asked where they got our information, they claimed they received it from an quote request we submitted to a different supplier on Octopart (wouldn't say which one).

Naturally we were skeptical of their legitimacy, and when we voiced our concerns their representative (Brian) called to discuss.  Brian had a Bronx style accent and tried various tactics to try to convince us that they were legitimate, and that they were simply reselling OEM part overages.

After some internet searching we came across this blog post on eria.com:
https://www.erai.com/erai_blog/3176/desperate_buyers_targeted_by_scammers_during_chip_shortage

I'm not affiliated with Eria, but they had valuable information that could potentially help people avoid making a costly mistake.

Be careful what websites you use to submit RFQ's, and be sure to do your due diligence since there are a lot of shameless people out there.

Hopefully, someone else finds it useful.

[Bassman59]

My company received an unsolicited part quote from SenPro Electronics (senproelectronics.com) claiming to have a large number of microprocessors in stock for a very good price.  When asked where they got our information, they claimed they received it from an quote request we submitted to a different supplier on Octopart (wouldn't say which one).

Assume every unsolicited contact is an attempt to scam you.

[Bradlez]

This looks like one of the more elaborate scams out there. Like someone had to design the logos for all of these companies. I wonder if they were stolen by the defunct companies they tried to imitate as or they actually had someone in the scam house make them.