Ask the Accountant…
Sometimes instead of answering a question, I address a call from a distributor.
Not long ago, a distributor told me he’d received a cold call from a company with a name vaguely alluding to “Books” and “Help,” claiming to be QuickBooks support. The caller insisted the distributor’s QuickBooks Desktop wasn’t updating correctly and asked the distributor to share his screen so they could “fix” it. Mid-call, they dangled a discount on next year’s QB Pro subscription—and he paid $649 on the spot.
A few months later, while his software was still running smoothly, the same outfit called again—same story, same update issue. This time they pitched another “extension” discount for $1,400. Alarmed, the distributor reached out directly to QuickBooks and discovered that his license number had been transferred out of his company’s name and sold to someone else.
It’s a new scam targeting QB Desktop users—scammers harvest multi-company license keys (especially those tied to payroll), then resell them for a tidy profit.
There are two lessons here.
`1. QuickBooks will only call you if you have been in touch previously and are expecting a return call.
2. If you find a QuickBooks Desktop license on-line to purchase, avoid it. It is most likely stolen and also could be infected.
Thank you to this distributor for generously allowing me to share his story. QB is working with him to provide evidence to dispute the credit card charges, but he is having to migrate to QBO. Fortunately, he did have an up-to-date backup.
Please email accounting questions you would like considered for the column to [email protected] with the subject line of “Ask the Accountant”.
