Exactly! In my experience, if they don't know us, its a credit check, call to our bank and other vendors, and even then, possibly cash-up-front. Maybe a small credit line, contingent on one order. Then their local sales rep will call and want to visit.
It amazingly easy to submit fraudulent orders or invoices with companies who are used to having a large number of invoices come into their offices each day.
It’s much like the old “copy toner” fraud (although on a larger scale) where scammers would call a company, usually during the luncheon hours where a low level employee may be covering the phones. The scammer would tell the employee its time to reorder toner for their copy machines, “confirm” the type of machine by having the employee tell him the model, then a large invoice would soon arrive at accounts payable. However, no toner would actually arrive.
If an intern was covering my phone while I was out of the office, I always warned them of these types of scams and told them to tell the person to call back or leave a number where I could reach them. There is no telling the number of fake invoices paid by large companies each year.