B.C. charity says it was defrauded in months-long scam

A B.C.-based charity says it was defrauded out of nearly a third of its yearly advertising budget after falling victim to an elaborate, months-long scam.

The Stigma-Free Society, which provides educational resources about mental health and stigma across the province, says it was scammed out of $1,500 in what appeared to be a legitimate marketing opportunity.

President and founder of the charity, Andrea Paquette, says it began in July 2022 when she was contacted by a company called Konect Media. She says someone by the name of Kent Trimble said they were looking for partnerships with local businesses and charities.

The company’s proposal, she says, was for her charity to have promotional material printed on 10,000 reusable grocery bags that would be given out at the IGA grocery store on Robson Street in Vancouver.

“It was reasonable, but not too good to be true,” Paquette told CityNews. “It would have been tremendous for the Stigma-Free Society. We don’t have a lot of promotional dollars but this was manageable and we felt that with this type of opportunity, it would be really good for us to spread information and awareness about our programs.”

When the proposal was made, Paquette says the IGA store confirmed the details of the partnership with her. Once she got that assurance, she says she paid an invoice for $1,500 via credit card to an online portal that had been sent from Konect Media.

‘Very elaborate’ scam went on for months

Paquette says once she firmed up the details of the promotion with Konect Media, she received some drafts of what the promotional material would look like. She even sent in revisions which were sent back to her on behalf of someone who she says appeared to be from the creative department of the company.

A sample of the artwork that was promised to Stigma-Free Society by Konect Media (Submitted to CityNews)

However, after a few months of back-and-forth over email, communication dropped.

“We started really recognizing that something was wrong here,” she recalled.

Paquette says she tried contacting the two people from Konect Media she had been talking with, but the email addresses appeared to be inactive. She also attempted to contact the company over the phone, but nobody answered.

“It seems like everybody’s been fooled in this situation,” she said.

According to its website, Konect Media provides advertising services through calendars, reusable bags, and other media to be displayed at restaurants and stores.

CityNews attempted to contact Konect Media through all available channels. All emails that were sent bounced back, and the phone number that had been provided to Paquette was not active.

The homepage of Konect Media’s website does not have any contact information for the company listed. It touts partnerships with a variety of grocery stores. (Screenshot via konectmedia.ca)

For IGA’s part, emails shared with CityNews show that someone who identified themselves as a manager of the store had been looped in on the correspondence, and said they were waiting for the reusable bags to be sent to them. The IGA store declined a request to comment on this story.

“This is an elaborate scam, I feel, because not only are they trying to sell advertising, it’s elaborate because they even got the approval with the IGA to move forward with this project,” Paquette said.

She adds since she realized she had been scammed, she has unsuccessfully tried to recoup the money from Visa. She says she has also reported the scam to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Scam is ‘very damaging’ to charity

Paquette admits that losing $1,500 may not seem like a lot of money to some people. However, she points out that the charity’s advertising and marketing budget for the entire year is $5,000.

“There are very large charities that can afford a hit like this. But to be very honest, it is a big hit to the Stigma-Free Society,” she said.

“People need these services, so it’s been very damaging to experience these scams.”

Paquette says she chose to share her story as a warning to others who may come across a scam like this.

“I feel like there’s a lot of stigma when people fall victim to a scam. They often don’t come forward because they feel ashamed,” she explained. “It’s very elaborate. It’s very smart. These people are definitely not amateurs and I feel like this could be taking place anywhere across Canada.”

Moving forward, Paquette says she will be more diligent about future marketing partnerships.

“I will from now on be approaching marketing companies myself. At the same time, I don’t want to be distrustful of anybody,” she said. “I felt like I did my due diligence and I did everything that I could to ensure that it was safe. And it just feels really disheartening and sad that somebody would want to scam and hurt a charity,”