Hereford based Beck narrowly avoided being conned out of hundreds of thousands of pounds thanks to the diligence of its staff.

The Enquirer has seen legitimate looking orders for more than £300,000 of Beck’s Proguard temporary site protection from fraudsters posing as major contractors and local house builders.

The orders use genuine company details and Purchase Orders formatted exactly like authentic documents.

The scammers look to order goods on credit then disappear with them once they are delivered.

The most recent fraud attempt was only foiled this month when the Beck lorry loaded with £85,000 of matting was about to leave the depot.

A suspicious Beck employee made a final call to a contact at the main contractor ordering the goods who put the real director on the phone who confirmed the order purportedly in his name was fraudulent.

Donny Wade, Business Development Manager at Beck said: “At Beck Products we are a genuine, honest, and hardworking company, selling genuine temporary protection solutions and ground matting products since 1976. We hold some of the largest stocks in the UK for genuine clients, making us a target for fraudsters operating in the industry.

“We take every enquiry seriously and at face value, however we will always be very diligent and thorough with our background checks, and you can be sure that fraudulent enquiries will not be tolerated and will be found out for what they are. Such contacts are always turned over to the authorities.

“We feel the need to warn genuine companies within the industry of this activity and to be on full alert with large enquiries for matting no matter who they come from, and especially if they push for credit and are not willing to pay anything upfront.

“By putting this out there let’s hope that fraudsters like this will no longer be able to hide, or succeed in their efforts to dupe hardworking people out their money and products.”