Scam email targets vans with fake invitations to Napa Truffle Festival

A scam email posing as Steve Carlin, co-owner of the popular Oxbow Community Market in Napa, targeted food trucks in the Bay Area and Sacramento, stealing credit card information under the guise of an invitation to an event.

An email from a Yahoo account invited vendors to participate in the upcoming Napa Truffle Festival at the Oxbow next weekend. He requested a fee of $50 per day to reserve a seat using a credit card authorization form to obtain payment information.

The annual festival is real and has been around for more than a decade, but Carlin said the email didn’t come from him, the Oxbow Public Market or the Napa Truffle Festival.

Among the scammers was Neil Evans, who runs a hot dog business in Napa. Shortly after submitting the form, he noticed fraudulent Lyft and DoorDash charges totaling $22 on his credit card, including one tracked in Canada.

“They made everything look so legit,” Evans said. “My bank found out and put a hold on my account so it didn’t get out of hand. But I’m really bummed that I’m not actually going to be taking part in the Oxbow Festival!”

Jeffrey Allen, owner of the Allen BBQ food truck in Sacramento, suspected this when he asked for a formal payment request via Venmo, Zelle or PayPal instead of providing credit card information — and got no response. At that point, he found Carlin’s official email address online and forwarded the exchange, avoiding becoming a victim of scammers.

Before that, however, the scammer had been communicating with Allen over several emails over the course of two days, providing details such as projected attendance and the number of vendors at the festival. They even asked him to prove he could handle a big market before securing his spot.

“It all seemed reasonable. The name matched, the dates are correct. It’s a credit card request that looked suspicious to me,” Allen said.

It remains unclear how many suppliers received the fraudulent emails.

Carlin fears that fraud could create further problems if vendors arrive with stockpiles of food to sell at the festival.

“They’re going to lose all that money in this case, too,” he told The Press Democrat. “We want to avoid that.”

In an official statement released on its website and social media, Oxbow Public Market said it will not host any “outside food vendors or trucks” during the festival and has not requested or received any payment for the same.

Robert Chung, organizer of the Napa Truffle Festival and director of the American Truffle Co., said outside vendors have never participated in the annual festival.

“It is unfortunate that a con artist took advantage of the popularity of the Oxbow Festival and Public Market to deliberately defraud and profit,” he said in a statement. “We hope the Napa Police Department immediately investigates this ongoing fraud.”

The Napa Police Department confirmed Friday that Carlin reported the scam. Although an investigation has not yet begun, officials encouraged any victims to come forward. Carlin also contacted Yahoo and the fraudulent email address was shut down.

You can reach Tarini Mehta at 707-521-5337 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @MehtaTarini.