UPDATE: This article initially reported that the location in question was located on Old Kings Road in Palm Coast. It has now been confirmed to be located in DeBary, with Palm Coast-based owners.
The owners of a DeBary Dunkin Donuts franchise were defrauded of $166K by a fake contractor, according to a report by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. Fortunately most of this money was ultimately recovered after the fact.
According to the FCSO, the owners of a local Dunkin Donuts store reported the incident to law enforcement on October 23rd. They’d been contacted by an entity apparently posing as the contractor who’d recently done remodeling for their restaurant.
A final payment had been sent by the owners to the ‘contractor’, but then the actual contractors sent an email indicating they’d never received this payment. As it turned out, two emails had been sent: one legitimate, and one from a similar email address with instructions for a wire transfer. These instructions contained bank information for the alleged fraudster instead of the legitimate contractors.
Recovering the Funds
The Dunkin owners told detectives they wired a total of $166,564.18 to this scammer. An investigation was launched by the FCSO’s General Assignment Unit. Detectives were able to identify an account with Truist Bank that still had $144,506.08. That account was frozen by the bank while the investigation continued.
A warrant was obtained by the FCSO on December 11th to recover the remaining funds from the frozen bank account. That money was then taken out and returned to the Dunkin owners. Overall, just shy of 87% of the money originally defrauded from the business was returned to them.
Preventing Business Fraud
“Thanks to this business owner quickly reporting the fraud and the great work of our General Assignment Unit detectives, we were able to recover and return the majority of the money that had been stolen by this scammer pretending to be their contractor,” said Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly.
For financial security, the FCSO advises business owners to scrutinize communications asking for money transfers. Bad grammar and spelling errors can be an indicator of fraudulent requests, as well as improper email addresses. Those who believe they’ve been defrauded are urged to contact the FCSO at (386) 313-4911 as soon as possible, or file a report at the FCSO Operations Center (61 Sheriff EW Johnston Drive, Bunnell) or the District 2 Office (14 Palm Harbor Village Way W, Palm Coast).
Chris Gollon is a Flagler County resident since 2004, as well as a staple of the local independent music scene and avid observer of Central Florida politics, arts, and recreation.
