The General Services Administration plans to remove a special contract category for agencies’ purchase of used or refurbished technology during its ongoing schedules consolidation.
The problem with the category — which GSA refers to as a special item number or SIN — for reselling tech is twofold. Fraudsters are impersonating agencies placing IT orders, spoofing small businesses into sending used hardware to empty warehouses where the equipment is intercepted and sold on the black market without the bill ever being paid.
There have also been cases where the used or refurbished tech, although sold properly through the category, is counterfeit or has been altered in some way that doesn’t meet government standards, leaving agencies open to supply chain risks
There are “clear signs” small businesses are being phished by fraudsters, Lawrence Hale, a director within the GSA Federal Acquisition Service, said at the 930gov conference Tuesday. In the latter case, he said, it’s “essentially a supply chain attack.”
GSA’s best course of action, Hale said, is to shut the SIN down.
Continue reading at: Fedscoop
