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Legitimate companies frequently use the telephone and the mail to solicit businesses. So do crafty swindlers. Some employ a "boiler room" full of phone salespeople to contact businesses with phony offers.

Using carefully prepared scripts or "pitch sheets," these slick telephone solicitors try to sell businesses almost anything. According to the Better Business Bureau the most common fraudulent pitches are for: advertising space that does not exist, vacation packages that take you for a "ride", office supplies which are inferior, such as copy machine paper or toner, phoney directory listings and specialty items that turn out to be totally different from what you were told you would receive.

Even if you don't agree to buy anything, these phone calls are usually followed by official looking invoices for the product or service. If the invoice is paid, the victim is branded a "sucker" and additional telephone sales pitches will be made to that same firm over and over again.

To prevent your business from being taken by these schemes, the BBB offers the following tips:

• Don't buy from new suppliers until you have verified their existence and reliability, particularly when contacted by phone.
• Ask for a sample of specialty items before you buy.
• Establish effective internal controls, channel all bills through one department, and verify all billing authorizations.
• Don't pay until all invoices are verified against goods or services received.
• Don't pay for advertising space in an unknown business directory.
• Be wary if a caller solicits placement of an advertisement in an unknown publication and refuses to give information that can be verified.
• Don't give out any information about your office machines over the telephone unless you're sure you know with whom you're talking. If you're not certain, ask for a call-back number you can verify. Alert your receptionist and staff to these precautions.
• Beware of exaggerated claims for services, products, or prizes. Be leery of such phrases as: "fabulous prize", "free gift", "area customer went out of business." Deals that sound too good to be true usually are.