Scammers target bars, cafes and restaurants

Otago Daily Times

20-05-2025

By Rachel Helyer Donaldson of RNZ
Fraudsters are targeting cafes, restaurants and bars, with at least two scams doing the rounds of the capital's dining scene, as well as some in Christchurch.
Hospitality NZ spokesperson Sam McKinnon says one scam doing the rounds in the capital involves a man claiming to be a diner, whose partner had become severely ill after eating there.
In several cases it was alleged the woman had gone into anaphylactic shock after eating onions which she was allergic to.
Another cafe was asked for a refund by a man who said his companion had had food poisoning.
The businesses realised it was the same person, after the scam was flagged up on a hospitality sector Facebook page, McKinnon said.
It was "disappointing and frustrating" for the sector, particularly in the tough economic climate, he added.
Fortune Favours venue manager Rachael Lee said she believed her bar was targeted by the same man earlier this month.
"He was claiming he'd ordered food and his wife, who was allergic to onions, had been given onions, and due to the fact that they weren't New Zealand citizens they had been over-charged hospital bills and now it was on us to pay them.
"We never want to have someone be over-charged, so we always try to check receipts and look through past transactions. But there was never any proof, just demanding money without providing any evidence."
Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard other venues had been targeted by similar scams. She was aware of about 10 bars targeted by the onions scam and thought at least several of them fell for it, which could have been potentially costly, she added.
"Some people have smelt a rat and said no, go away. But others have been called out and handed over the money."
None of the stories matched, she said. "If I hadn't seen the [Facebook group] post that he had already hit other bars, we probably would have been scammed out of a lot of money."
Maura Rigby - the co-owner and director of Beach Babylon and Little Beer Quarter - said both venues had been targeted by people running "the overcharging or double charging scam" at least twice in the past six months.
Staff had been alerted to two attempts to get refunds based on fabricated credit card statements, she said. "We're talking about $200 to $300, not huge numbers, when you compare it to large scams like bank fraud. But for the hospitality industry, it's a nuisance and it's a significant amount of money."
When the person making the claim was asked for extra evidence, "we found that the person just disappeared". The same thing had happened this year, although she was not sure if it was a different person, or group of people, she said.
"We're a customer service industry, we want to please our customers and put any problems, anything not done right, as quickly as possible.
"Initially we're always really receptive to hear if there was a mistake and we thoroughly investigate it. But now we'll just be asking for a little bit more information so that we can ensure that it actually matches up with transactions that happened at our businesses, rather than just people targeting us because we like to please our customers.
"It's not a great time for us. I guess other people are doing it tough too, and that might be why there's a rise of scams like this. But we don't have the margins to withstand extra expenses like this at the moment."
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said it had been alerted to the scams by members in both Wellington and Christchurch. The association was sending out a notice to alert others who may not have heard about it, she added.
Scams put additional stress on restaurants in challenging economic times. "Having to deal with this and figuring out what's genuine and what's not can be a bit of a minefield."
It was important for companies dealing with these sorts of complaints to request a receipt, establish the details correctly, and have a clear refund and complaints policy, she said.
"It is surprising how often people will claim to have been in a restaurant and eaten a certain dish, and then later on the owner will discover they definitely weren't here, as they didn't serve that dish that night. In some cases, we've seen people stating that they've consumed something that isn't even on the menu. It definitely pays to gather all the information."