Supplier Alert: Fraudulent Purchase Order Scam

Be vigilant on receipt of order enquiries on behalf of Stantec

This message is for the attention of existing and potential suppliers to Stantec.

We want to alert you to a fraud scam that is targeting existing and potential suppliers of goods to Stantec, as well as other businesses in the UK. Please take the necessary precautions so that you are not a victim of this scam.

While Stantec cannot prevent this fraudulent activity, we are supplying the Police with details to investigate the matter as we become aware of specific instances.

The fraud scam involves purchase orders and requests for product quotations that purport to originate from Stantec but are in fact fraudulent.

The scam operates in the following way: the supplier will receive an email requesting a quotation for goods. Once the quotation has been provided, a purchase order is emailed to the supplier that bears resemblance to an authentic Stantec purchase order. The purchase order typically instructs delivery to an address not affiliated with Stantec. The purchase order may be accompanied by a Credit Reference Sheet which is a fraudulent document. Stantec does not issue a 'Credit Reference Sheet’. After shipping the item(s), the supplier never receives payment and is unable to retrieve the shipped products.

Indicators of fraud:

• Incorrect domain name used to send emails and purchase orders. A valid Stantec email address will always end in @stantec.com. Hovering over the email address may reveal the originator’s email address if different from that displayed. An example of an incorrect domain being used by scammers is @stantec-engineering.com but other domains are being used.
• The delivery address is not a Stantec address. Fraudulent addresses will typically be a domestic residence or a self-storage facility.
• Poorly written email with grammatical errors.
• Use of a false or unknown contact from Stantec. If requests for quotations or purchase orders are received from a new Stantec contact that raises your suspicion, please email procurement.UK@stantec.com to verify the validity of the request. Do not contact the name/number used on the email/purchase order.
• Phone numbers not associated with Stantec.
• Unusually large quantities are requested.
• Rush to ship priority/overnight.

What to do if you suspect fraudulent activity:

Email procurement.UK@stantec.com to verify the validity of the request (please ensure you include any emails and documents you have received that relate to the enquiry).

A member of Stantec’s Procurement team will respond to your email as soon as possible to confirm the validity of the request and will provide advice on the action to take if the request is found to be fraudulent, including reporting the incident to Action Fraud or other authorities as an attempted fraud against your organization. Please do not attempt to call any phone numbers contained within the fraudulent emails that purport to be Stantec numbers as they will attract a service charge. In the UK, these numbers typically begin with 0843 / 0844/ 0845 / 070.

What Stantec is doing:

• Contacting existing suppliers that may be subject to this type of fraudulent activity in order to raise awareness and provide basic guidance on how to deal with it.
• Requesting that domain names used for fraudulent activity are closed.
• Reporting all instances of known fraudulent activity to Action Fraud and compiling evidence for all reported incidents.
• We have posted this notice to our website to help prevent current and prospective suppliers from falling prey to these schemes.

If you require further information, please email procurement.UK@stantec.com.