[SoftTalker]

A certain number of businesses will just pay an invoice if it looks real and has a business justification. There are scams around this, but also vendors who may be taking advantage of this. If 30% of customers will just start paying the invoices, it's worth it to them to deal with the questions from the rest of them. At least until reputational damage starts.

A very simple example of a scam that's probably happened to you if you own a domain name: as the expiration date approaches you'll get "invoices" from companies for domain name renewal charges. If you read the fine print it will say "this is a solicition for business" but otherwise it looks just like an invoice. Some people will just pay them.

[spogbiper]

Many years ago I met a woman that ran a "business" that simply invoiced legitimate companies for printer supplies and toner every month. A surprising number of her invoices were paid without question.

That went on for a couple years. Then one day she left town basically in the middle of the night and we never heard from her again.

[sgerenser]

I’ve heard of these “toner scammers” since at least the 1990s and probably earlier. Apparently they’re still at it: https://www.eojohnson.com/blog/toner-scams

[Guvante]

It isn't technically a scam to offer a limited trial and bill when you go over as long as the terms mention that.

After all B2B transactions are often invoice based.