Fair Systems that Work Newsletter
"If it has your fair's name on it, your vendors assume it's you. That's the whole scam."
This past week, I've heard the same story from few fairs.
A vendor shows up on event day. Table, product, cash box, ready to go.
Nobody at the gate has their name on the list.
Turns out they never registered with the fair at all.
They registered with someone pretending to be the fair. Filled out a form, paid an $80 vendor fee, got a confirmation email back that looked official enough to trust.
Then showed up to a fair that has no idea who they are.
That vendor is out $80. Your fair looks like it dropped the ball, even though it never touched the transaction. And the person who actually pocketed the money is long gone.
Here's what one of these emails actually looks like:
"Dear Vendor,
The [Fair Name] invites you to participate as a vendor at our upcoming Winter Vendor Market. This indoor event offers a great opportunity to showcase and sell products to the local community.
Application Form: [link]
Event Details
Date: Saturday, December 5, 2026
Location: [Fairgrounds name and address]
Setup Time: 8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Market Hours: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Take-Down Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Event Type: Indoor Event (Free admission to attendees; monetary and non-perishable food donations will be accepted).
Vendor Space & Fee
Vendor Fee: $80.00 + HST
Space Allocated: 10 ft x 10 ft indoor space
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to working with you!
Best regards,
[Fair Name]"
Read that again. Real dates. Real fairground name. Real-sounding fee structure. The only thing wrong with it is the sender: a plain Gmail address that has nothing to do with the actual fair. As a vendor myself, I've gotten versions of this email up to three times a week for the past six months.
Here's Why:
- It looks exactly like the real thing. Same format vendors see from a hundred legitimate fairs every year. Nothing about the layout screams fake.
- Your fair has no way to catch it. If you're emailing vendors from a Gmail account too, there is zero visible difference between you and the scam. Vendors can't tell you apart because on paper, you aren't.
- Nobody finds out until it's too late. The vendor doesn't know they were scammed until they're standing at your gate with no reservation and no refund coming.
What's the fix? It's not complicated:
- Get an email address on your own domain. If your fair has a website, it has a domain. That means you can have an address like info@yourfair.com or vendors@yourfair.ca instead of a Gmail account. Google Workspace (workspace.google.com) is the simplest way to set this up, roughly $8 to $10 a month. Microsoft 365 does the same job if your board already lives in Outlook.
- Move every vendor communication to that address. Applications, confirmations, invites. All of it, starting now.
- Tell your vendors, in writing, more than once. Add this line to your vendor page and every vendor email going forward: "All official communication from us comes from an @yourfair.com address. If you get an email from any other address claiming to be us, please don't click or pay. Contact us directly to confirm." Then put that same line directly on the vendor application form itself, not buried in a confirmation email they might skim. A vendor filling out the real application should see the warning while they're in the exact spot a scammer would try to catch them.
- Post it on your social media, every vendor post, as a reminder. A short post before each vendor season opens: "Reminder: all official vendor communication from us comes from [email]. If you get anything from another address claiming to be us, don't click, don't pay, come ask us directly." Vendors who missed the email or the application line will still see it in their feed.
The hard truth is: most boards read something like this, nod, and never change the email address. It feels like a small thing next to everything else on the to-do list. But it's the cheapest fix on your entire list, and it's the one standing between a vendor losing $80 and a vendor never getting scammed in the first place.
I've watched fairs deal with the fallout of this exact scam, angry vendors, damaged trust, a scramble to explain something that was never their fault. A locked-down domain email and one clear sentence to vendors closes that door completely.
Let's Get to Work
Kryssie ❦
P.S. If you want a hand writing that warning line for your own vendor page or application form, reply and I'll send you the exact wording to paste in.
