Sue Glowach, an NWT painter, is warning artists to be wary after losing hundreds of dollars to scammers pretending to be Fireweed Festival organizers.
“Why I want to talk about it is to get word out to other artists and vendors and craftspeople that participate in these festivals, to be aware that this is pretty active in the Northwest Territories,” said Glowach on Friday.
“None of us can afford to be out a whack of money.”
On June 3, Glowach received an email claiming to be from the “Vendor Coordination Team” for the Fireweed Festival in Fort Smith. Glowach shared her email chain involving the scammers with Cabin Radio.
She said the email looked “very official” and included the festival’s logo.
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“It looked extremely close to the email address I had used for the festival in the past, but was missing two letters of the actual email address Fireweed Festival uses.”
Fireweed Festival uses the email [email protected]. The scammers left out the “nt.”
The email included a supposed breakdown of vendor fees that ranged from $350 to $550 for artisans up to $1,000 for food vendors, plus additional fees for premium spaces and electricity.
When Glowach expressed concern about having to pay those fees alongside other costs like travel, the scammers promised $200 would be refunded after the event. Ultimately, they asked her four times in the email chain to pay $350.
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Melissa Johns, an organizer of the Fireweed Festival, said two vendors reported suspicious emails to the festival – once on June 3 and again on June 4. Johns said the festival filed a police report on June 4.
Organizers also posted on Facebook and sent an email to prospective vendors warning of the scam.
“There is no price for vendors to come to Fort Smith and participate in the Fireweed Festival. I can’t say it enough. We never ask for money to come to the Fireweed Festival from vendors,” Johns said.
Johns hopes the scam emails don’t “deter people from signing up and coming here.”
Glowach called her bank after receiving Johns’ email. According to Glowach, her bank said it wouldn’t be able to return the money because she “knowingly sent an e-transfer to an unknown address.” Glowach said she plans to file her own report with the RCMP.
“I’m considering that gone,” Glowach said,” but I just want to make sure nobody else gets caught when they’re tired and rushed.”
The fake Fireweed Festival email also included a Jot Form link to what claims to be an application, but the official application link on the festival’s website is a Google form.
On June 1, Folk on the Rocks posted on Facebook a warning that scammers were posing as the music festival.
“We do NOT send vendor applications through random forms or unofficial links. We will NEVER contact you from a [email protected] email address. Only complete the vendor application forms on our website,” the festival stated on Facebook.
RCMP have been contacted for comment.
