Clueless New York Lawyers Become Victims In $3.3 Million Toner Cartridge Scam Run By California Man

Mark Timothy Mushkin was busted for operating a toner cartridge scam from 2011 t0 2017. Mushkin allegedly conned over 878 New York lawyers and business owners over a 6 year period into paying him more than $3.3 million.

The enterprising scammer would send out invoices for copier toner that was never ordered or delivered. As a result, the clueless New York lawyers and business owners blindly paid the invoices thinking they were legitimate.

Mushkin allegedly set up a phony company named IT Tech Products. IT Tech would targeted law firms for Mushkin’s “Sliver Scam”

The idea of the sliver scam is that you can pocket a lot of money by taking just a little bit from many people. Each rip-off is too small to spark law enforcement curiosity, but collectively, the swindles add up to a big pile of money.

The key is to keep it small. Do not get greedy and do not exploit the same sucker again and again.

Mushkin also issued refunds if anyone questioned the invoices. This allowed him to operate the scam undetected. That was until Mushking got sloppy.

IT Tech invoiced a New York law firm for $1,676 that he had previously refunded. This time the firm notified law enforcement.

Complaints began piling up with the Better Business Bureau and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Postal Inspectors discovered that Mushkin had registered IT Tech in January 2011 and got a P.O. Box.

They reviewed surveillance video of the P.O. Box and matched photographs of Mushkin to the person retrieving mail from IT Tech’s box.

The federal prosecutors allege Mushkin received from 2011 to 2017 that 1,919 checks totaling $3,334,238  from 2011 to 2017.