A local café owner is warning other businesses about a new order scam after someone attempted to dupe her business.
Dani Davidson, the owner of Robusta Café on Macdonell Street, said she received an email last week from [email protected].
A person who identified themselves as Sarah Jason claimed to be a volunteer who was looking to place an order for 150 frontline workers. They said they would schedule a driver to pick up the food.
“At first I was excited, right? I was like, oh this is a huge order and I got excited,” said Davidson about the initial email, “But then it got a little bit fishy.”
The person asked Davidson to send them a menu, and after two days, messaged her again to place an order.
Davidson recalls the order having some strange items on it, with three items to be shared among 150 people.
“I was pointing them in the direction of meals that we have done in the past that are good for groups, especially during COVID you want meals in individual packaging,” she said, “They picked the kind of items that not one person would eat, it would be like more of a group would share these items.”
She said the first red flag came when the person was pushy to pay without working through the order details.
“Food service people know that’s very rare that people are super eager to pay,” said Davidson.
After asking for a telephone number to confirm the order, she then Googled large order scams at restaurants, and found a news article about a restaurant in Calgary experiencing the same thing.
“They described almost a very similar situation, and I thought, oh yeah, this is definitely a scam.”
Davidson also Googled the email address and learned it was being used to target massage parlours and salons.
“They have been using that email now to do multiple scams,” she said.
For Davidson, this is the first time she experienced someone attempt to scam her business.
“I think they’re also taking advantage of the fact that we’re in a pandemic and are not dealing with our customers directly,” she explains, “It’s a lot of over the phone, online and third party apps, and I think they’re seeing a lot of opportunity there.”
The way this scam can work is the person pays for a large order through a stolen credit card and then cancels the order, leading the person to ask for a refund from the business through cash or cheque, claiming their card has been cancelled.
If she had followed through with the order, Davidson said it would have been a loss valued at $2,000.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose that amount of money right now,” she said.
Davidson said she is going to keep them engaged while she notifies Fraud Canada. She has also posted about the incident in a Facebook group to warn other restaurants in the downtown core.
“A lot of them were like, thanks for sharing,” she said about the reaction from others online, “I thought this was the best way to get the message out as soon as possible.”
Davidson is also warning small businesses and restaurants to be wary of big orders with strange items. She said to look out for potential clients who avoid talking on the phone and have strange spelling or grammar in the email.
"If something seems fishy it probably is," she said, "Just Google restaurant scam, or salon scam, and see if you can find any stories that are similar to yours."
With the hospitality and tourism sector hit the hardest during the pandemic, Davidson said she is angry that someone would try to take advantage of businesses in this situation.
“Especially small businesses too, a lot of us, we’re the owners and managers, we’re working in our kitchens and serving too, we’re stretched very thin as well,” explains Davidson.
“So a large order like this gets exciting at first, because you’re like oh this order is good for my business, and then you don’t want to rush through and miss any red flags in a situation like this.”
