Night market invitation scams target small businesses: what you need to know

A Manitoba bakery lost $150 and spent 48 hours preparing products after accepting what appeared to be a legitimate invitation to a local night market.

Key takeaways

• Owners of a small bakery paid $150 for a vendor spot offered by someone impersonating a Manitoba night market.
• The owners also spent 48 hours preparing baked goods before discovering the offer was bogus.
• Other Manitoba markets and festivals have warned that scammers are impersonating them to collect vendor fees.
• Small business owners should confirm invitations directly with the venue or organizer before paying or preparing products.

Small bakery loses $150 to a fake night market invitation

The owners of a recently opened gluten-free bakery received an email inviting their business to participate in a local night market.

The message looks professional and included what seemed like a legitimate vendor application. After answering questions about the products they sold, the owners were quoted a price and paid a $150 vendor fee.

The email "all seemed very official," one of the owners said. "We were filling out the form — they were asking us what kind of products we provide. So we filled it out and responded to them and they gave us a price [to participate]."

Believing their place was confirmed, they spent 48 hours preparing gluten-free baked goods for the market.

It was only on the day of the event, when one of the owners called the venue to confirm the final details, that they learned the bakery was not on the vendor list. The email address they had been communicating with did not belong to the venue or the real organizers.

According to CBC News, the owners considered themselves fortunate to have lost only $150, as a legitimate market space can cost as much as $600. But the real cost was higher. They had also lost two days of work and were left with a large quantity of baked goods prepared for an event they could not attend.

After sharing their experience on social media, the bakery received support from the local community. The incident was also reported to police.

How the fake night market invitation worked

The scam succeeded because it closely resembled a normal interaction between an event organizer and a vendor.

The invitation referred to a real market at a real venue. It asked relevant questions about the business and its products, then provided a plausible price for participation.

This type of scam may unfold in several stages:

1. Scammers identify small businesses that regularly attend markets or could benefit from a vendor opportunity
2. They impersonate a real market, venue or event organizer using copied names, logos and event details
3. The business receives an unsolicited invitation or is directed to a fake vendor application
4. The scammers ask questions about the products the business sells, making the application process feel genuine
5. The vendor is asked to pay an application fee, deposit or booth fee
6. Once the money is sent, the scammers disappear or continue communicating until the real event date approaches

In some cases, the fake email address may look almost identical to the real one. Fraudsters can add an extra letter, switch two characters or use a free email account containing the event’s name.

The victim may not notice the difference unless they compare the address with contact information published on the official event website.

The real cost can exceed the vendor fee

The $150 payment was only one part of the loss for the owners of the small bakery.

Preparing for a market can involve:

• Purchasing ingredients or stock
• Producing goods in advance
• Designing signs and promotional materials
• Packaging and labeling products
• Scheduling employees
• Arranging transportation
• Turning down other sales opportunities
• Spending hours or days preparing inventory

Food businesses face an additional problem because many of their products have a limited shelf life. If the event does not exist or the vendor is not registered, the business may be left with unsold inventory before it expires.

For a young business without a large financial buffer, the combined loss of money, products, and working time can hurt considerably more than the original scam payment.

Scammers may also ask vendors for contact, payment or business information as part of the fake application. Those details could potentially be used in follow-up phishing attempts or to make future approaches more convincing.

Other markets and events have also been impersonated

The fake night market invitation was not an isolated incident. Other market and festival organizers have reported scammers using their names to approach small businesses and request vendor fees.

In one case, a regular vendor received a convincing invitation supposedly connected to an annual craft market. The vendor contacted the real organizers before paying, allowing them to confirm the email was fraudulent and warn their wider network.

An organizer responsible for urban markets and pop-up shops said scammers have repeatedly copied its name and branding. The fraudulent email addresses may differ from the legitimate address by only one additional or altered letter, making the impersonation easy to overlook.

Cultural festivals and community events have issued similar warnings, reminding businesses to submit applications and payments only through their official channels.

One scam invitation even offered businesses vendor spaces at an event that did not operate a vendor market at all. A quick check of the event’s official website or a call to its organizers would have revealed that the opportunity did not exist.

According to CBC News, police received several reports of similar incidents over the summer. No arrests had been made at the time of the report, and the cases remained under investigation.

You may also want to read: Summer event scams: How fake vendor invites target small businesses

How to check a night market invitation before paying

A real market invitation can still arrive unexpectedly, so receiving an unsolicited email does not automatically mean it is fraudulent. It does mean you should verify the opportunity independently.

Before completing an application, paying a fee or preparing products:

• Find the official event website yourself. Do not rely only on links in the invitation.
• Check the event calendar. Confirm that the market exists and that its dates and location match the email.
• Compare email addresses carefully. Look for extra letters, misspellings, substituted characters or unrelated domains.
• Call the venue or organizer. Use a telephone number published on the official website, not one provided by the sender.
• Ask whether applications are open. Some scammers advertise vendor spaces for events that are not accepting applications or do not have vendors at all.
• Confirm the payment process. Ask who receives vendor fees, when payment is expected and which payment methods are used.
• Search for warnings. Look up the event name alongside terms such as “scam,” “fake vendor invitation” or “fraud.”
• Do not let urgency rush you. Claims that only one booth remains or that payment must be made immediately may be designed to stop you from checking.

Ideally, you should complete these checks before investing time or money in preparation.

What to do if you paid for a fake vendor spot

Contact your bank or payment service immediately and explain that the transaction was connected to fraud. Ask whether the payment can be stopped, recalled or disputed.

Save all available evidence, including:

• The original invitation
• The sender’s full email address
• Application forms
• Payment instructions and receipts
• Links and attachments
• Your conversations with the sender
• Screenshots of social media profiles or advertisements

Report the fraudulent account to the email provider or platform used to contact you. Notify the real event organizer as well so it can warn other vendors.

If the application requested passwords, financial details or identity documents, take additional precautions. Change exposed passwords, enable two-factor authentication and contact your bank if financial information was shared.

Help your small business identify fraudulent invitations and scams

Make sure anyone who handles your business email, bookings or payments knows that event and vendor invitations can be impersonation scams.

Establish a simple internal rule: no new event fee should be paid until someone has confirmed the opportunity through an independently sourced phone number or official website.

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