Saskatoon cafe says scammer redirected money owed from food app

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 09, 2025 3:52 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

A cafe proprietor successful Saskatoon says she's blessed with a solution Uber Eats came up with aft alleged fraud.

Between September 2023 and the extremity of 2024, thousands of dollars worthy of Uber Eats orders fulfilled by Tot Cafe ended up successful an chartless slope relationship based successful Calgary, according to the business owners.

Uber Eats told the cafe that successful September 2023, it got a petition from Tot Cafe's verified email to alteration the bank account associated with the restaurant and hadn't been made alert of the outgo contented until this past month.

It turned retired a fraudulent idiosyncratic had accessed Tot Cafe's email. The full owed to the cafe aft co-owners Nicole Kwau and Boxiong Xiao reached retired to Uber Eats, by their calculations, was $8,600.

"It was really frustrating astatine the opening due to the fact that I was thinking, 'Oh my gosh, we're going to suffer that overmuch money,' " said Kwau. "It's really a batch of wealth for tiny businesses similar us."

Kwau said determination is simply a blessed ending, as Uber Eats is reimbursing the mislaid money.

Saskatoon constabulary Sgt. Matthew Bradford, who investigates economical crime, said galore fraudsters people small- and medium-sized businesses, arsenic galore of them don't person blase firewalls oregon cyber security.

"They're moving their e-mail, their concern email from their idiosyncratic devices, their idiosyncratic laptops," Bradford said.

"Just being mindful that these kinds of frauds tin hap and to probe and instrumentality steps to support your devices and your accounts from imaginable threats is key."

Saskatoon constabulary accidental they get reports astir businesses having their email compromised astir each week.

Typically a concern volition get an email and click a nexus that allows fraudsters to redirect wealth oregon intercept wealth meant for the business.

A fraudster mightiness besides airs arsenic a vendor oregon supplier and get the concern nonstop wealth meant for that vendor oregon supplier.

Kwau said Tot Cafe is still utilizing nutrient apps, but paying other attraction to outgo and security.

"If [food apps] promise to nonstop america the money, for example every Monday, and we don't get the wealth connected Monday, past we should interaction them instantly conscionable to debar aboriginal issues similar this," Kwau said.

Kwau is informing different tiny concern owners to usage two-step authentication, and ne'er springiness retired idiosyncratic email addresses oregon idiosyncratic telephone numbers.