Charlottetown Farmers' Market warns local businesses of email scam targeting vendors

The Charlottetown Farmers' Market is warning local businesses that someone is impersonating the market's email account in an attempt to run a scam.

Polina Puchkova, the market's executive director, said someone has created an email address that looks nearly identical to the market's real one, but ends in @aol.com instead of @gmail.com.

The scammer is using Puchkova's name to contact businesses — both those that have previously applied to be vendors at the market and others that staff have never communicated with — offering pop-up space at an upcoming event in exchange for an up-front payment.

"It's very sad because such businesses don't make a whole lot of money already, and we're all struggling," Puchkova told CBC News.

"I would be very honest, I'm embarrassed about the situation because it's coming from my name."

She said the market's staff know of at least two businesses that have been scammed for between $50 and $100.

Saturday morning, some individuals showed up at the market expecting to set up a booth they believed they had paid for, but the market had no record of the transactions, Puchkova said. Staff eventually decided to let them set up.

"We obviously also sympathize with the fact that this is a difficult situation," she said. "They've already paid a fee. I'm just hoping that if they are able to set up that day, if we have the space available, maybe they can make up that money."

She said the fraudulent emails asked the victims to send money via e-transfer or to provide their credit card information, including security codes.

While the market does have an email address for e-transfers, Puchkova noted that it never asks for credit card information.

She added that the market never asks for up-front payment from vendors. The exception is when vendors put down a $25 deposit to apply to join the market.

Puchkova said the market has received between 30 and 50 vendor applications, and at least 15 of those applicants have reported receiving scam emails.

She noted that market staff only discovered the scam after one of the approved vendors received suspicious messages and reported them.

She suspects the scammer might have gained access to the list of applicants through a new third-party program the market started using to handle applications and vendor communications, though Puchkova said no definitive connection has been established. Staff are continuing to look into the matter.