Buffalo bakery warns customers about online order scam

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Owners of BreadHive Bakery & Cafe on Connecticut Street said this past weekend alone, over 20 customers showed up with a receipt for an order that didn’t show up in their system.

Residents’ hard-earned money wasn’t going towards food, but was instead filling the pockets of a scammer.

“It made us look really sort of disorganized when we couldn’t find their food quickly,” said Allison Ewing, one of the working owners of BreadHive.

Ewing said the problem started three weeks ago when customers came into the store asking for their order.

“They had paid and gotten a confirmation, so we were able to figure out that there was a third-party ordering service,” Ewing said. “They had scraped their menu from our preferred ordering service, which is Toast, and they had set up a storefront for us and then they had linked themselves to our Google Business Page.”

According to the bakery, Google allows edits to be made by third parties on business pages.

WIVB News 4 took a look at Google Wednesday and clicked, “Order online.” The first thing that popped up was “Fantuan Delivery,” which is the scam, yet it’s recommended above the trusted provider that customers should use, which is called “Toast Local.”

“They had scraped our menu, but they had increased all the prices, so people were getting ripped off for the food they were ordering,” Ewing said. “They were paying and getting in confirmation, and then we were not receiving an order, so then people would show up having paid for food that we did not have.”

The bakery has since been in contact with Google to remove the scam service. News 4 was told customers that were able to dispute the charge with their credit card company.

This isn’t an isolated issue, managers at Kostas on Hertel Avenue told News 4 that scammers did the same thing to them this year and it took weeks to get the link taken down.

The Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York said this has been a trend since mobile orders became big during COVID and that both businesses and customers need to pay attention.

“If you are a business owner, do a regular search of yourself and see what pops up. If you see something suspicious, you’ll want to report that right away,” said BBB spokesperson Katarina Schmieder. “Your safest bet is to order directly through the restaurant, whether it’s through a legitimate website or by calling and picking the food up by yourself.”

Schmieder added that if you’re a business that is experiencing something like this, you can report the scam here along with using the FBI’s website for help.

BreadHive is still in the process of trying to remove the scam ordering app. In the meantime, you can click here for the official online ordering page.

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Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

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