'Sophisticated' thieves target local bakeries

Published: Aug 25, 2024 Duration: 00:03:04 Category: News & Politics

Tags : news crime-publicsafety CA crime public safety kttv highland park la crime eat your flowers bakery

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how this crash happened. I have a feeling it has something to do with speed. All right. Moving on now to a local business targeted by sophisticated scammers. The victim has a warning tonight for other small business owners out there. Fox Eleven's Chelsea Edwards is live in Highland Park with more for us. Chelsea. Susan, this business owner was initially, of course, excited about this large scale order for 84 dozen cupcakes. That's more than a thousand cupcakes. But unfortunately, it was all part of a scam that apparently targeted other bakeries as well. Take a look. This is what we're known for. Baked treats hand decorated with fresh, edible flowers as Gloria Stern's specialty. So she thought it was slightly odd when her bakery eats your flowers. Got an order for more than 1000 undecorated cupcakes. We're not a cupcake company, so this was kind of a new tailored custom item for this, this customer. We're known for our beautiful edible flower decorations. We're known for making really beautiful items. But after multiple emails with someone named Zoe Madison, the large order was confirmed and a check for more than $7,500 arrived via priority mail. But Lori couldn't deposit it through her phone, so she took it to Bank of America. I said, is this legit? Like, I wasn't able to cash it with my phone and they they said, well, we'll see in 24 hours. But it looks great. It looks fine as of now. When the check cleared, she and her team enthusiastically got to work, buying thousands of dollars worth of ingredients and supplies is a really big boost for us, and my employees were excited. We were all excited about it. But then Zoe sent this email asking Gloria to revise the order due to budget constraints, which was impossible. Just days before the cupcakes were due to be picked up. We've already bought all the batter. There's no way you know this order is complete as of now. And she says, well, I'm going to have to cancel my order unless you can send us half the funds back. And at that point I was like, okay, I'm going to the bank right away. Lori says her bank assured her that the check had cleared, but the next day the money was gone. The check marked returned. This time, Lori was told the check was cited as counterfeit. She immediately called peak trading the corporation listed on the check and her heart dropped. She said I was the 15th person that day to call about the same exact story happening, the same exact situation, and she said they targeted all bakeries and landscaping companies. It was such a shock and it was so disruptive to my business. Lori never heard from Zoe again. She's now trying to make the best of the situation, donating hundreds of the cupcakes and trying to warn other small business owners to be on the lookout. If it can happen to me, I think this can happen to anyone. And this was really, like, really sophisticated. And again, Lori took that check to her bank to see if it was counterfeit, and they weren't even sure that it was counterfeit right away. We have reached out to Bank of America for comment, but haven't heard back. She's just urging all small business owners to be vigilant and look out for Red flags like a customer placing a large scale order. But refusing to communicate over the phone, which was

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