The owner of an Edmonton event-planning business is warning other entrepreneurs to be wary of a cheque-cashing scam after she was almost duped.
Christina Ignacio-Deines owns and operates I-D Bohemia Lifestyle, Events and Interiors.
Despite nine years of business experience, she says she nearly fell victim to a variation on a cheque-cashing scam.
It all began in early August when Ignacio-Deines was contacted by a so-called production company that called itself Stoneway Films.
“They said that they had produced a movie and they were interested in holding a private screening to potentially raise money for the film or to do another film,” said Ignacio-Deines. “They asked me if I would be available to produce the event in Edmonton in late October or early November, and I was.”
‘Everything seemed to check out’
Ignacio-Deines said the company told her they wanted to leave the planning of the event, including management of expenses, with her, which isn’t unusual.
Stoneway then put her in touch with a talent agency to hire speakers for the event that Ignacio-Deines says went by the name Walsh Talent and Management. Ignacio-Deines did her homework to make sure everything checked out, including visiting the two company’s websites.
“All of the stuff that it seems a legitimate business would have,” said Ignacio-Deines. “Everything seemed to check out and when I first looked them up I didn’t see any news stories or anything about them, I didn’t see any Better Business Bureau alerts or anything like that, anything out of the ordinary.”
According to Ignacio-Deines, Stoneway Films sent her a cheque for more than $60,000 to cover expenses.
“The next step was for me to send a deposit for the speakers’ fee. So I was getting ready to send the payment, and then in the meantime I was continuing to look for a venue so I posted a notice on a local event planners forum … ‘Hey, does anybody know of a venue that would meet this criteria?'”
‘They let me know this was a scam’
That post likely saved Ignacio-Deines from being scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars.
“Just the details that I included in my notice alerted a couple of event planners and right away, like within two minutes, I got two phone calls from two event planners that I know personally. They let me know that this was a scam,” she said.
Ignacio-Deines soon learned the so-called talent agency was in on the scam with the fake production company.
“Basically what happens is the production company sends you a cheque that’s fraudulent,” said Ignacio-Deines.
“You cash the cheque, they get you to send a payment to this talent agency and once the payment is sent both the production company and the talent agency disappear.
“Then what you find out is that the cheque is fraudulent. Your bank calls you and tries to have the payment reversed and then you’re on the hook for those funds with no way to reach the talent agency or the production company.”
‘Enough to destroy any small business’
Had Ignacio-Deines gone through with the payment, it likely would have been devastating.
She could have been out $59,900, an amount she said would be “enough to destroy any small business.”
This is not the first time Stoneway Films has appeared on the Better Business Bureau’s radar. The bureau now has an alert about Stoneway Films on its website.
The Better Business Bureau alert listed on their website. (BBB Website)
“We were first contacted by a couple of people who work in event planning,” said Evan Kelly, senior communications adviser for the Better Business Bureau serving Mainland B.C.
“It was this company that allegedly had an office location here in Vancouver and they were calling themselves Stoneway Films.
‘No such business was at the location’
“Our research found that no such business was at the location that we had, so this had a lot of red flags instantly right off the bat. Then we did a little bit more in investigation and found that their website, stonewayfilms.com, was a complete rip-off of eposfilms.com. The look and feel, everything about the website was the same … it was clear that they had stolen all this information and imagery from this other legitimate company.”
Kelly describes it as a variation on the cheque-cashing scam but it is sophisticated and the onus is on the event planner to make sure it’s legitimate.
“Anytime that someone asks you to cash a cheque and send money on where it’s technically not necessarily your part of the deal, it sounds like a scam to me,” said Kelly, adding that it can be a bit tricky for event planners.
“They’re targeting event planners who might normally do something like this, they might take in all that money to sort of allocate to different industry as they need to get the job done.”
Kelly said anyone who receives a cheque for services should wait until it clears, and not just electronically as fraudulent cheques are sometimes not discovered until someone physically inspects them. He thinks the scammers try to apply pressure to avoid detection.
Sound too good to be true?
“They work on that sense of urgency,” said Kelly. “They really want you to cash that cheque right away and get things going so they can get you on the payroll and get things moving and you’ve just got to take a step back – if this is too good to be true, it probably is.”
A phone number listed for Stoneway Films in Vancouver is not in service and the domain name on its website expired earlier this month. There also seems to be no trace of the talent agency.
Ignacio-Deines is feeling relieved that she didn’t get taken but also a little embarrassed. She has filed a report with police but has little confidence anyone will be caught. Still, she felt it was important to alert others in the industry.
“The more I can to do to warn other businesses about situations like this, the better.”
A screenshot of Stoneway Films’ former website. In the bottom right corner, it says the domain has expired.