Juniper uncovers [General]

2009 Apr 3
communities.canada.com

This is awesome! Way to go Juniper, and thanks to Ron Eade for reporting on this!

2009 Apr 3
I have written one letter to a restaurant and did not get a response and boy was I ticked - especially after dropping more the $400 for a meal for two (I sent a photocopy of the receipt too!). However, its nice to know that most restaurants actually do try to make up for short comings in such situations. There have been several other occassions where I politely pointed out an issue and the restaurant immediately made up for it(i.e. comped us some drinks or a one of the meals).

This fake complaint really bothers me because its outright fraud and can only disuade restaurants from doing the right thing.

Great article and I hope the restaurant community in Ottawa does not get scammed by this person.

Cheers

2009 Apr 3
I wonder if this person was only working the scam on restaurants? If it's working, I'm sure they would expand it into other service industries as well. Kudos to Ron for printing this, and Juniper for uncovering it.

2009 Apr 3
Not once, but twice misused "whom"!!!

People who have no idea how it is used should just avoid it altogether.

2009 Apr 3
Grammar police -- love it! The improper use of "whom" bothered me, as well...

2009 Apr 3
haha WOW!

a sign of the times - reminds me of the "recession eating" thread! i wonder if the suspect is selling the gift cards/certificates, or actually going in for meals? because i'm sure a lot of owners will just say something akin to "come in and ask for me and i'll make amends".

although clearly fraud, you have to admit it's clever. in fact it wouldn't surprise me if this crook is a fellow Ottawa Foodie given their good taste (chimi?)

oh...why Milestones of all places?!


2009 Apr 3
LOL @ Monty - no, it wasn't me. I don't live anywhere near Lees Ave.

2009 Apr 3
I'm glad to see that somebody finally got caught and exposed for this. I'm sure that there are a lot more people out there doing similar things and it's appalling!

2009 Apr 3
true chimi, you may not live anywhere near Lees Ave - but if i'm not mistaken your place of employment is located a mere 5 minutes away from Juniper!

AH HA!

2009 Apr 3
FYI, I've been in touch with Ron Eade and we cross-checked bits of data to the point where I can be fairly sure the perpetrator isn't a fellow Ottawa Foodie.

2009 Apr 6
I am glad this piece of detective work paid off.. "Bouquets" to Juniper for uncovering (and spreading the word) on this fraud.

Wonder if anyone intends to press charges, or if the Police are involved (beyond the Grammar Police, I hear they can be a real "Which").
;-)

2009 Apr 7
Fresh Foodie - What would you have done if it was a fellow foodie?

I am NOT saying that the scammer deserves any protection at all, at all, but something about it feels big brotherish? Would Ron have published the info?

It's not like I personally have any anonymity on the site, but this is the only message board I've ever revealed who I am in RL. Now I wonder about privacy on other sites.

2009 Apr 7
Not to speak FreshFoodie's mind, but rather to his reputation as a pretty even-keeled sort of guy. I expect he would not have outed the person, other than to remove their account, and all their postings. I also (if I ran Ottawa Foodies) would be curious to see if I could track whether one of these miscreants was using 'my' site to research which restaurants to try to scam, and would be mildly outraged by it.

2009 Apr 7
Hell I'd look too if I could!!!

Pete- sometimes it is hard to get the tone right. I didn't mean anything bad towards FF by asking.

I just wondered about the 'out-ing'.

2009 Apr 7
As Pete suggests, I would certainly never "out" someone in any public sense -- I'm no court of law! If the perpetrator had been a member of this site, I would have reviewed their comments and postings. If everything looked okay, I would simply have left things as they were and made a mental note to watch that user in the future. If some comments seemed dubious I might have added a note to them or even deleted them, but I'd be unlikely to delete the user's account in any case.

2009 Apr 7
Thank-you. I am glad you are watching out for us.

If you did know, the temptation to send them a "I know what you did... email" would be hard to resist. LOL

2009 Apr 10
Ottawa Foodies readers will be happy to learn the perpetrator of this hoax has confessed, and apologized to at least one restaurateur I know about who sent a gift certificate to make amends. I will have details Sunday in my blog www.roneade.com (a.k.a. Omniovore's Ottawa). She feels guilty and, apparently, remorseful ...

2009 Apr 10
Yeah, she probably wouldn't have felt too guilty if she hadn't been caught though.

2009 Apr 15
What a bunch of crap. OO - thanks for updating. I'm glad the @#%& confessed. I hope people learn that the restaurant community is a relatively small one and a universal scam is not such a good idea...

2010 May 18
There is another scam afoot, this time not involving Juniper

communities.canada.com

2010 May 18
I applaud restaurateurs who blew the whistle on this latest scammer. In my experience, restaurateurs will do their best to satisfy even questionable complaints as a matter of goodwill, and I think those who do not are in a definite minority. Restaurants are there to serve, make people happy, and satisfy customers' wants. It does not serve restaurants well to dismiss their customers, and I believe (given the opportunity) eateries will do their best to satisfy. If nothing else, responding to customers makes economic sense. If people have a legit complaint, take it first to the management before slagging in any public forum including chat rooms. But, that is my opinion.

2010 Jun 7
More fraud in Ottawa!!!

ottawa.ca

2010 Jun 7
Do we really have to revive this topic after it has been dead for 3 weeks?

2010 Jun 7
LWB,

Sounds like a variation of the "Craigslist Phone Verification Scam". www.frugalcanadianliving.com

Funny, I got a call a few weeks back, from a bonehead who claimed to be calling from the CRTC, informing me that I could register with their new Do Not Call List. All I had to do was wait for a phone call that will give me a pin, then they'll call back to confirm etc. etc. I told him sure I'd do it if he first stuck his headset where the sun don't shine ;-))

Sounds like they're now claiming to be health inspectors.

Sad people get sucked into the scam.