Harriet Thomas had applied for a stand at the Abergavenny Food Festival on previous years, and was “really excited” when an email came offering her the opportunity to book a place for her knitting workshops.
She said that as she spent so much time on a computer running her business, she was used to seeing scams, but this time “nothing sparked a red flag”.
Unlike other scam emails, the one in question “looked completely genuine” including the email address it had been sent from.
“[I] filled in a jot form, which is something we use all the time and again, all the fonts, everything, [and] the branding was completely legitimate,” she said.
She said she had been reassured by subsequent email exchanges which used her name and showed the sender had detailed knowledge of the Abergavenny festival site and facilities on offer, until she finally paid for a pitch.
It was only after she published a Facebook post to say she would be at the festival, that she saw a social media post from the real one warning about the scam emails.
“My heart just sank. I was so embarrassed,” she said.
Despite publicising her experience to warn other traders and reporting the scam, she said she did not know how they could be stopped.
“It’s getting more and more competitive to try and get a stall at these events. So people are more likely to fill a form in quickly thinking, I really, really want to make sure I secure my space,” she said.
