DETROIT – A scam is targeting Michigan small businesses by using a popular event, All Things Detroit.
Jennyfer Crawford-Williams is the owner and creator of All Things Marketplace and major event All Things Detroit. She built her brand from the ground up more than 10 years ago, including a marketplace in Corktown and a shopping experience in Eastern Market with 200 vendors.
“I’m an advocate for small business,” Crawford-Williams said.
She found out this week that someone was using her brand to not lift business, but to tear them down.
“A small business owner reached out to me to inform me that someone was actually reaching out to them to collect funds for them to participate in All Things Detroit,” Crawford-Williams said. “We’ve been booked and sold out in our space for weeks now. It set my anxiety way high because the last thing that I want people to do is to tie the Ask Jennyfer brand, or All Things Detroit, with scamming.”
To participate in the event, vendors pay more than $200, but this person was charging $85 and sent an email telling the small business they received their application.
“It was a very rude email, actually,” Crawford-Williams said. “It said, ‘If you want the space or whatever, you know, you have to send this money to Zelle or Cash App.’ And I’m thinking, ‘We don’t even use them or cash out for payments, number one.’ And so that was a red flag for me. And I immediately told her, ‘Please do not send this person any money,’ but I was too late, she had already sent a small fee to them.”
That business owner paid on PayPal, and after talking to Crawford-Williams, reported the email account to PayPal. PayPal is looking into it.
Melanie Duquesnel, president and CEO of Better Business Bureau Eastern Michigan, said they’ve seen this scam time and time again.
“I wish we could say there was a certain population that was immune to scams,” Duquesnel said. “Not anymore. Technology is not our friend in this regard.”
There are warning signs, like the way the person asks for payment. Once you send money on Zelle or Cash App, it’s gone.
“If the deal sounds outside of the norm, it’s a first red flag, so you take your time,” Duquesnel said. “The other thing is: If somebody’s contacting you with that too-good-to-be-true offer, thank them, get their contact information, and then go to that organization’s website, or even better, call them so you talk to a human, but you’re initiating the conversation.”