It seems a scammer tried to target people interested in having a booth at an upcoming community camera club show in Richmond.
The annual Richmond Camera Show, the second largest in Western Canada that takes place this year on May 10, posted their show information on Facebook.
As it happened, someone jumped into the comments, saying people could book a table through them.
When one of the organizers, John Yu, first saw this post, he just deleted it.
But when it happened again, he decided he’d see how far this apparent scammer was willing to go and contacted them with a message.
“Within the first message, they were asking for money,” Yu told the Richmond News.
He asked whether he could book a table and how he could pay, suggesting he could pay by cheque.
The reply, however, was he could pay by Apple Pay, PayPal, Cash App, Venmo, Chime or Zelle.
Yu said the organizers have sent out an email blast to their usual vendors and other contacts to warn them against being scammed and they haven’t heard of anyone falling for the scheme.
Most regulars know the organizers, but Yu said he’s concerned newcomers to the show could be “vulnerable” to this scam.
Anyone interested in booking a table should go through their website, Yu added. That way, he or his co-organizer Dave “Big Dave” Lai can respond directly.
The Richmond Camera Show will take place at the South Arm United Church.
There will be everything from brand new to vintage camera gear as well as the increasingly popular “Y2K” pocket cameras.
Early bird admission at 9 a.m. is $10, and admission from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. is $5.
For information from police on scams and fraud and how to detect them, visit the RCMP's website.
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