This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Loria Stern, who owns Eat Your Flowers, which fell victim to a counterfeit check scam last month.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
We were all excited when a last-minute, big order came through — a $7,500 order of 1,000 cupcakes is significant for a small business like mine.
These kinds of orders don’t come through too often, probably about five times a year.
The order seemed legitimate; they gave a lot of details about what they wanted.
I always prepare my team by saying that if we have a large pending order, we only start work on it once we get the deposit or they pay in full.
They sent the check by priority mail, and the funds went through, so I told my team, “It’s go time!”
Courtesy of Loria Stern
We all went into the bakery on a Friday, which we usually take off, and there was a lot of running around.
I had to buy custom cupcake boxes and because we didn’t have enough time to place a bulk order, I had to run to the store to buy more eggs.
Then, the clients suddenly said they wanted to cut the order in half.
Part of me thought, maybe we should offer a partial refund. I didn’t want to lose half of this order — a significant amount of money for my bakery.
Then, they ghosted us. The next day, the funds were withdrawn from our account.
It later transpired that it was a counterfeit check, and they had been trying to get me to send half of that money somewhere else.
When we realized it was actually a scam and we weren’t going to get any money from this order, it felt like a big waste of time, resources, energy, and stress.
It was also just upsetting. I’m feeling a bit of PTSD.
Running a business is hard enough already
We’re not making a lot of money here — this isn’t exactly a business I’m creating generational wealth with at this moment.
I’m a single female business owner supporting myself and my modest lifestyle, as well as my employees, which include single mothers, all of whom are just trying to get by.
We’re driven by creativity and a passion for baking beautiful things to make people happy, so when something like this happens, it’s really disheartening.
Courtesy of Loria Stern
It’s already so hard running a small business, especially a bakery, where the margins are really small.
For Eat Your Flowers, we’re using exotic ingredients — edible flowers —and we don’t use any preservatives, so they need to sell fast and be consumed fast.
That’s a challenge, and then there’s also the usual difficulties of motivating your employees, coordinating everyone’s schedules, and even just having the motivation to keep doing what I’m doing when I’m not seeing huge rewards.
But, now, there’s a new challenge moving forward: identifying scams.
Firstly, I won’t accept checks anymore.
For big orders over $500, I’ll need to receive this money at least two weeks in advance, and no more last-minute orders unless I’m really doing due diligence.
I’ll also be sure to try to talk to people on the phone whenever possible, as well as just trying to be more vigilant than ever.
However, it all makes me scared for the future. Like, what else can happen that I have to worry about, that my loved ones have to worry about, and that people in general need to look out for?
The fact that we now have to have this other layer of caution is just sad.
