Fraudsters impersonating OHL teams, targeting small businesses in vendor scam

The Ontario Hockey League (OHL) is warning small businesses that fraudsters are impersonating its teams in an ongoing vendor scam.

The scam has been going on since at least late October and has impacted more than half of the teams in the league, Josh Sweetland, OHL director of communications, told Global News Tuesday.

Sweetland said scammers are creating fake email accounts and targeting small businesses with advertisements to be part of a game-day vendors event at a team’s facility.

“They’ll ‘sell’ spots in these pre-game vendor displays for $150-200 (requesting money via e-transfer), and frame the event in such a way that it is fairly convincing that the advertisement is actually legitimate,” Sweetland said in an email, adding the scams have featured realistic email signatures impersonations of real staff, and specific venue directions.

“Sadly, it has fooled a number of small businesses into paying these fraudsters.”

He added several teams have been in touch with law enforcement. One of those is the London Knights, which issued a statement on Monday.

“The London Knights among other Ontario Hockey League teams have been made aware of an ongoing email vendor scam impersonating team staff,” the team wrote.

“Please refrain from any communication involving emails that don’t come from official team addresses ending in @londonknights.com. We have contacted local enforcement on this matter.”

London police Det. Michelle Serpa told Global News that officers are “actively investigating” the matter.

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“As a general safety reminder, members of the public are urged not to e-transfer money or share information with anyone without first verifying the source of the email or request by contacting the supposed sender directly,” Serpa said in an email.

“Always confirm the legitimacy of an email or message before responding, especially when a request originates from outside your organization.”

Sweetland said the OHL hopes awareness will limit the scam’s impact.

“Our best defence is to raise awareness, and to ensure local businesses are always on the lookout for an authentic email address, i.e.; using the team’s name, @londonknights.com or @sudburywolves.com,” Sweetland said.

“Always check the actual email associated with the sender.”