Be vigilant on receipt of order inquiries on behalf of Blue Bird

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

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

While Blue Bird cannot prevent this fraudulent activity, we are supplying this information in hopes of preventing others from falling victim to this scam.

The fraud scam involves purchase orders and requests for product quotations that purport to originate from Blue Bird 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 Blue Bird purchase order. The purchase order typically instructs delivery to an address not affiliated with Blue Bird. 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 Blue Bird email address will always end in @blue-bird.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 @bluebird-us.com but other domains are being used.
• The delivery address is not a Blue Bird 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 Blue Bird. If requests for quotations or purchase orders are received from a new Blue Bird contact that raises your suspicion, please use the Contact Us link on our web-site to verify the validity of the request. Do not contact the name/number used on the email/purchase order.
• Phone numbers not associated with Blue Bird.
• Unusually large quantities are requested.
• Rush to ship priority/overnight.

What to do if you suspect fraudulent activity:

Use the Contact Us link on Blue Bird’s web site to verify the validity of the request. A member of Blue Bird’s Procurement team will respond to your email as soon as possible to confirm the validity of the request. Please do not attempt to call any phone numbers contained within the fraudulent emails that purport to be Blue Bird numbers as they may result in a service charge.

What Blue Bird 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.
• We have posted this notice to our website to help prevent current and prospective suppliers from falling prey to these schemes.