After a small business owner in Mount Pearl fell victim to a fake Christmas market, the event’s real organizers stepped in to help.
The RNC Police Department is also warning business owners to be wary of scams.

Claudia Fimbres, owner of Mamacita Latin Kitchen and Market, told CBC she unknowingly signed up for a fake seasonal market and paid $150.

“I started looking into it more and saw… everything was gone. There were no posts, no information. They were never heard from again,” she says.

Fimbres says she saw the Facebook post in November inviting vendors to participate in a holiday market in the Quidi Vidi Historic District on Dec. 6 and 7. The location listed was Quidi Vidi Village artist studios.

She contacted the publisher. He was charged $100 to reserve a small booth, and then an email with an “entry card” was sent to him. Then he was asked for another $50 for a “permit fee,” warning him that if he didn’t pay, he would lose his booth.
He was then asked for another $40 for a “parking fee.”

Fimbres says he immediately became suspicious and canceled the deal, requesting a refund, but never heard back. A few days later, he contacted the real Quidi Vidi Village Artisan Studios, where he learned that the whole thing was a scam—one that had used information from a real event called the Merry Makers Market.

Daniel Rumbolt, the studio’s director, said this wasn’t the first time scammers had used his name and events, but this time it was more widespread.

“We found about half a dozen posts in various Facebook groups,” he said. “Some groups had multiple posts in a row. They were all a little different, but it was clear that they had stolen the image from our real posters.”

However, all was not lost; the Merry Makers Market organizers invited Fimbres to attend the real event after hearing about it.

“It’s very frustrating because your intentions are good; you want to get your business out there, get noticed. But when things like this happen… it’s really nerve-wracking,” Fimbres said.

In a statement to CBC, RNC police also warned business owners to be extremely cautious when paying unknown individuals or organizations and to report any suspicious activity online.

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