From the BBB web site:
Unethical But Legal Sales Pitches
Every year, millions of dollars' worth of high-quality, fairly priced office supplies are sold over the telephone and Internet by honest, reputable suppliers. Unfortunately, for many businesses and organizations, millions of dollars are also conned out of businesses each year by office supply schemers, "paper pirates" and "toner-phoners."
The large majority of these rip-offs go either undetected or unreported because the supplies are used or the victims are too embarrassed to acknowledge they’ve been suckered."
Even when the victim is aware of a swindle, in many cases there is no legal recourse. While their schemes might be highly unethical, the perpetrators usually devise them in a manner that is totally legal. Telephone salespeople for these unethical operations are carefully trained not to misrepresent their employers, and their meticulously scripted pitches often avoid identifying their operations with brand name suppliers or manufacturers.
http://www.bbb.org/ALERTS/article.asp?ID=452
Here’s info on a lawsuit filed in 1999:
Consumer lawsuit alleges California company ran "a classic toner pirate operation" to cheat businesses in the sale of copy machine toner.
http://www.iowa.gov/government/ag/consumer/press_releases/cos.html
And yes, there’s actually a tonerpirate.com selling discounted refill toners
