Edge of the World Music Festival issued a statement on July 27th that a fraudulent email was circulating targeting local and off-island businesses and organizations.
The email, from edgeoftheworldfestival@gmail.com, appeared to invite potential businesses to click on a link to apply to vend at the festival. Once the vendor application was “successful,” the business was directed to make a payment.
Festival Directors were notified of the scam by a vendor whose payment to the fraudster was flagged as unusual by Northern Savings Credit Union (their financial institution).
Local business should be aware that emails from, or payments to, the following emails are NOT associated with EOTW.
edgeoftheworldfestival@gmail.com
paymentedgeoftheworldfestival@gmail.com
All correspondence related to vending at the Edge of the World Music Festival comes from vendor.eotw@gmail.com.
It appears it was a mix of local and nonlocal businesses, organizations, and musicians targeted, many of them not previously connected to the festival. Festival directors believe most of the information was scrubbed from their website, however it is still unclear where the fraudsters sourced the email lists.
If any local businesses were impacted, the Festival is asking that they report the payment immediately to their financial institution and let the Festival know by emailing director.eotw@gmail.com.
The Festival is committed to supporting the investigation and response however possible, and would like to extend a heartfelt háw’aa/haawa to the vendor and Northern Savings Credit Union for bringing this issue to their attention.