My Inside a Wine Scam series was quoted this week in a Melbourne, Australia newspaper. The Age is a broadsheet daily newspaper with a circulation of over 658,000, published in Australia since 1854.
Inside a Wine Scam is a five-part investigative series originally published on the Dover Canyon winery blog. Dover Canyon, a micro-winery (2500 cases) in Paso Robles, was one of the first 9 wineries in the United States to engage in blogging and social media, according to the Winery Web Site Report.
The Melbourne article was written by Tony Lee, a grower and winemaker at Foxey's Hangout, in the cool-climate maritime region of Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, just an hour's drive south from Melbourne.
NOTHING bolsters a small winemaker's quivering ego and cash-strapped day quite like an enthusiastic letter accompanied by a fat purchase order. You might imagine my recent delight at receiving an email from England and an order worth more than $1000. Before emailing Mr Blake with our go-ahead, we decided a quick consultation with Dr Google might be in order. The words "wine" and "scam" and "email" came up with all sorts of fun results, but the one that interested us most came from a California winery called Dover Canyon. A Dover Canyon owner, Mary Baker, has written about and received dozens of complaints from American wineries about the "wine scam". The whole point of the scam, according to Mary, is the shipping fees. "Credit cards are the preferred method because all the numbers are stolen."
It could easily have been me. But instead of taking the order, I had a quiet yarn with my local police sergeant. He put me on to the fraud squad. . . . In the meantime, I'll bear the blow to my ego and be thankful my savings haven't copped one as well.
The original series was written in December 2007 and moved to Central Coast Wine Blogs in 2010.
Interesting point of view here. How the wine industry is a victim also by scammers and selfish businessmen.
Posted by: Leah.Marie | 10/20/2009 at 01:39 AM
I'd like to share an email I just received from Cathy Gowdie in Melbourne:
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"A few weeks ago you were kind enough to advise us about a 'scam' email
seeking wine for export.
Thank you for your help - below is a link to the column my husband
Tony wrote about it for The Age newspaper. It got a great response,
not just in our local area but in other parts of Australia as well."
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Glad I could help! It's immensely satisfying to know that the series continues to make a difference.
Posted by: Mary Baker | 10/22/2009 at 11:20 AM