2021-01-13

Scammer fakes ties to local business

A business woman in Bridgewater who learned her company has been roped into a scam is anxious to get the word out -Buyer Beware.

Over the past two years or so, Patianne Hatfield has built up a reputable business selling and renting containers at 540 Logan Road under the name of Eco Box Containers & Storage Ltd. However, a scammer has been duping people into sending him money, under the pretence that he's selling for EcoBox.

"He started in October. He had an ad on Kijiji in every small town in Nova Scotia that had a business park," Hatfield told LighthouseNOW. "And he would just make up an address."

The scammer sent customers invoices from professional accounting systems.

"So it looked bonafide to people. The interesting thing was, though, they were selling for 30 cents on the dollar."

The scammer pitched one set of containers for $1,700 a piece. "And at that time, I was selling them for $4400, $4600," said Hatfield.

Hatfield first became aware of the situation when she received a call on October 11 from a man who said he was on King Street in Bridgewater and asked where someone by the name of Dan was.

"I said, 'Who's Dan? I said I think you have the wrong number."

But the caller was insistent, she recalled. "'No, no. I got this number from my boss and my boss bought two of your containers."

The following week another person had gone into a nearby business and indicated they too were looking for "Dan" from EcoBox. The man was insistent that he had been speaking to a Dan who said he owns EcoBox.

"It went from, 'I think my containers are on your lot,' to people being adamant that they bought one of those containers," reported Hatfield.

She received numerous calls and came to learn that a man in Ontario was out $30,000, one in Moncton lost $10,000 and another in that city $5,000. "In Cape Breton there's two families $2,000 each. A guy in the (Annapolis) Valley $2,000."

However, she suggested some people began to become wary that they were never able to meet Dan, who sometimes called them six and seven times a day to close a deal. "He promised trucking at nights and on weekends. There were some red flags," said Hatfield.

She then contacted the companies whose software the scammer used to produce the invoices, including Square, Quickbooks and Simply Accounting, telling each one that the person selling under the name of EcoBox was a fake and they had to do their due diligence or the RCMP would be called. "And they shut him down each time. But he would just move on to a different invoicing system."

Hatfield called the seller himself from a number given to her by the duped customers.

"It was interesting, because although he was changing email addresses, the phone number stayed the same." The number indicated it was in Prince Edward Island, however, according to Haftield it "wasn't a landline," but one reached via Skype.

She described speaking to a man with "a thick accent," possibly German or South African, but in any case "odd for Bridgewater."

Hatfield feigned an accent of her own and asked the scammer a series of questions, including where he's located. "And then he started to get frustrated with me ... And, finally, I had some choice words, and I said, 'I'm Patianne at EcoBox and I'm coming to get you.' And he hung up on me."

Having once sailed solo across the Atlantic, and now selling and transporting 20- and 40-foot containers on her own, Hatiield is no push over. However, she maintains that since she herself wasn't out of any money and the scammer isn't in Canada, there wasn't a lot she could do. Nonetheless all of his ads came down the weekend following her call.

"He was back in action the next week, but so was I." Hatfield put up ads on Kijiji "at my expense" and used social media to get the word out "don't buy from this guy."

Her ads start with "Buyer Beware.

"And then I explain there are bonafide dealers and there are those that are not," said Hatfield.