Inside a Wine Scam: 'John Nelson'

Have you ever yearned to be a private investigator?  A Stephanie Plum, Magnum P.I  or an intrepid investigative reporter?  I do . . . I fantasize that if I could solve just one crime, hand over one perpetrator, I will have done my part for society. 

Recently, some small family wineries in our area were hit by internet identity thieves.  One small winery was innocently engaged in a fraudulent transaction for $80,000 and 4 pallets of their wine.  Then another winery down the road from us also reported the loss of an entire pallet of wine in a fraudulent transaction.  They thought they were dealing with an overseas distributor.  So when I got a similar email with shady details, I asked myself, what would Stephanie Plum do?  Or Kinsey Millhone?  And I proceeded to snoop, lie, and cheat my way to answers with the best of the best.

Unfortunately, when I called a law enforcement office to tell them I could arrange for the perp to be at a specific place, at a specific time, easily identified, and engaging in crime at that moment, the response ranged from, "this isn't TV," to, "We don't give out our names for security purposes." 

So the best I can do for the future of internet safety is publish my rather long account of my affair with wine customer 'John Nelson.'  I will show you how the wine scam works, why it works, who the real criminals are, and who the front men here in the United States are. 

Over the next few days, our 'Inside a Wine Scam' report will be published in five parts:

• Part I: How the Wine Scam Works
• Part II: The ' John Nelson' Letters
• Part III: It Ain't TV, Lady
• Part IV: Who's in Your Wallet?
• Part V:  The Worm Turns

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Comments

[David Topper]

And I thought it was bad when a guy called and complained that the case of wine he purchased from us while visiting in our tasting room contained half-filled bottles.

Oddly, after ripping into me about our poor quality control, he couldn't remember the date of his visit, what our winery tasting room looked like, but he remembered that it was our "most expensive Cabernet".

And, of course, he wasn't in our customer database because he purchased multiple cases of wine with friends and they payed cash.

Later that week at a luncheon, I heard stories that he called multiple Napa wineries with the same story... I almost wet myself when I found two that said they shipped him replacement cases.

[Mary B.]

Yikes. I haven't encountered this one yet. We'll be on the lookout. ;)