Back in May I found an event on Facebook that I thought would be great to attend with Harlequin Tea. So I emailed them and after some conversation paid over Venmo for two occasions, the first one tomorrow. So far nothing seemed fishy with this. Almost all events I have attended has had this chain of events, email and pay via Venmo, Cashapp or whatever they want.

Didn’t think more about it, had it on my calendar. Until this morning when I emailed them back for more instructions for tomorrow in regards to parking, set up etc. That’s when I quickly realized that this was all a fucking scam. Because this is what I got back in the email!

They want me to pay another $120!!! And to a different account than I already paid to. If I would see this account the first time I would absolutely have had red flags. But this was the account that I paid my money to:

So I called the event center where this was going to be happening and they denied having any kind of vendor event going on tomorrow. Yepp, this is a scam! I have paid $120 for something that is not happening.

Right away I went on Venmo and disputed the payment. I have no hope on getting the money back but at least I tried. $120 is a lot of money for me! Not just to pay but in lost revenue that I thought I would have!

I am both pissed at myself for not realizing this and I am now on the mission to warn other small business for this person and this email address associated with the event. And I have learned my lesson to do my damn research much more thoroughly next time.