Business - Dave Gallagher

POSTED: Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Lynden restaurant owner learns to watch out for the scam

As local businesses continue to get their messages out on the Internet, it's important to remain mindful of scams.

A recent attempt at a local business was foiled, fortunately before anything was lost. Brian Poag, owner of Jake's Western Grill at 8114 Guide Meridian in Lynden, said his restaurant got a call for an order that might have been tempting to take during this recession. A person called the restaurant requesting to have an event catered for 200 people. The person said he was handicapped and needed to communicate through a third party.

That third party communicated by e-mail, ordering a variety of food that would be picked up. However, the e-mailer then asked Poag to charge an additional $1,500 to the person's credit card and wire the money to the e-mailer, so other bills could allegedly be paid. Poag immediately stopped the order and turned the information over to the Lynden Police Department.

"It's not unusual to get a catering order, but this one felt suspicious right off the bat," Poag said. "I haven't had this type of scam happen to me before."

While Poag doesn't know who tried this one, he has his suspicions that it was someone outside the area. It would have been easy for someone anywhere to have tried it. Like many restaurants now, Jake's has a Web site that includes a menu and an e-mail address. As businesses continue to establish a presence on the Web, whether it is with Facebook fan pages, Twitter or Linked In, it's a good to remember not all of those "fans" have the best of intentions.

It's even more important to keep this in mind now because the holiday shopping season is nearly here, a time when scams tend to increase, and it's a challenging economy, making it hard to survive even one hit.

When times are tough, it can also mean scammers will be even bolder about trying to make some quick cash, and businesses may be tempted to overlook some precautions in order to make a sale.

Poag has operated Jake's for nearly two years, and said it has been holding its own during this recession. He knows all businesses have had to adjust to this slowdown, so he wanted to get the word out about this scam.

"I thought it was important to share this information so we don't have a victim around here," Poag said.

Biz Talk runs each Sunday. Reach Dave Gallagher at 715-2269 or dave.gallagher@bellinghamherald.com. Visit his business blog online at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/business or get updates on Twitter at twitter.com/BhamHeraldBiz.