Food Truck Scams: How to Spot and Avoid Them Online
Scammers are going after food truck owners. They send fake event invitations that ask for a vendor fee through Venmo or Cash App. They send phony catering orders with official-looking paperwork. They send messages that claim your Facebook page broke the rules and will be deleted unless you click a link. Police departments and state consumer offices in Wisconsin, Iowa, Wyoming, and Arizona have all put out warnings to mobile food vendors.
If you run a food truck, food trailer, or pop-up tent, this issue shows you how to recognize the common food truck scams, what to do before you pay anyone, and how to keep your Facebook page and email from being hijacked. You’ll also meet this week’s featured truck, Bubba’s Fish Shack in Lebanon, Missouri, a family fish fry that grew into a full-time food truck.
WELCOME AGAIN 🚚
Hi! Welcome to this week’s issue of My Favorite Food Truck Newsletter.
This one isn’t the fun kind of marketing topic, but it might save you the most money. Scammers have figured out that food truck owners are busy, hard-working, and always looking for the next good event. You’re standing over a flat top at noon, and your phone buzzes with a “great opportunity,” and who’s got time to double-check?
So let’s make time right now. I’ll cover the scams going around, how to spot them, and a few habits that make you a much harder target.
First, I want you to meet a food truck I tried for the first time this summer. I’ll tell you what, it was good.
🚚 FOOD TRUCK OF THE WEEK
Bubba’s Fish Shack — Lebanon, Missouri
Bubba’s Trailer Logo
I first ate at Bubba’s Fish Shack at the Starvy Creek Bluegrass Festival in Conway, Missouri. Fried fish done right, and it’s no surprise once you hear where it all started.
Their Story
Kevin's family has done fish fries for many, many years, at the river, at home with friends and family; that was their thing. He wanted to offer that food for everyone to enjoy, so we decided to start a food truck. We researched for a few months, determining what we wanted to offer, what the food would cost, supplies we would need; then we bought the trailer.
Most of the work was already done, but we had to install gas lines and equipment. It didn't take long before we ran out of money, so we said it's now or never; we had to get out there and start selling food.
Our first event was the Route 66 festival at Boswell Park in June of 2022. It was a huge success. Of course, when we started, we only offered 2 menu items: a 2-piece or 4-piece fish and fries.
We kept it simple, worked all the kinks out, and slowly added to our menu. Now Kevin works the food truck full time, and our menu has expanded to include snacks and appetizers.
Mary and Kevin Terry
Their Setup: A food trailer based in Lebanon, Missouri
Set up at Walmart
Serving hungry customers
Best-Selling Item: It’s a toss-up between the fish tacos and the 4-piece fish and fries.
Look at those fish tacos
What They’re Nailing: A simple start. Two menu items, done well, before anything else got added. That’s a smart way to learn what your customers want without drowning in inventory and prep. The menu has grown to include snacks and appetizers.
Hungry yet?
Their Business Tips & Lessons:
Start small and then build up. Build on your idea, and perfect what you’re doing before expanding.
Great fish and fries
The Takeaway: Bubba’s Fish Shack is on Facebook only, and that’s a perfectly good way to run a truck. Focusing on one platform, done consistently, beats five platforms done halfway. But it ties right into today’s topic and is something to consider.
When Facebook is your only front door, that page is your whole online business. If someone hijacks it, you lose your menu, your photos, your followers, and your event announcements all at once. Keep that in mind as you read the playbook below because I’ll show you what to do if it happens.
But first…
🔗 Check out Bubba’s Fish Shack on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/bubbasfishshackllc If you’re in the Lebanon, Missouri area, watch their page for where they’ll be parked next. Like and follow their Facebook page to show your support!
Want your truck featured next? Reply to this newsletter or visit our Contact page with your best photos (yes, a picture of you with a smile too), your logo, your story, your best-selling item, your social links, your top marketing or business tip, and your first and last name.
📈 MARKETING PLAYBOOK
How to Spot Food Truck Scams and Protect Your Money and Accounts
THE PROBLEM: Common Food Truck Scams
Scammers go where the money is, and they’ve learned that food trucks are easy to reach and quick to say yes. You may find events through Facebook groups, emails, and direct messages, and that’s exactly where they show up.
The fake event vendor fee scam. You get an email or message inviting you to a “fan event,” festival, or community gathering. All you have to do is pay a vendor fee, usually through Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, or PayPal, to hold your spot. You show up, and there’s no event. Wisconsin’s consumer protection office warned about this one, and they noted the scammers use lots of different Gmail accounts so their messages slip past spam filters.
The fake permit or license notice. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, police warned vendors about emails that looked like they came from the official food concessionaire for Frontier Days. The email carried a phony permit application and asked for payment by Venmo or PayPal.
In Dubuque, Iowa, vendors lost money to emails offering event spots, and some of those messages also threatened their food licenses or permits to rush them into paying.
The fake Facebook community poster. Police in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, described a fake account that posted vague event flyers in local Facebook community pages, kept asking vendors to send private messages, and then wanted payment up front.
The fake catering order scam. A big order comes in, often months ahead, with official-looking paperwork. You buy the ingredients and prep the food, and then the delivery address turns out to be a dead end. A catering company in Malaysia got caught by one of these using a fake university letter. With holiday party season coming up, catering inquiries pick up, so keep your guard up.
The “Facebook says your page is in trouble” message. You get a message or email claiming your page broke copyright rules or community standards, and it threatens to delete it unless you click a link and “verify.” The link goes to a fake login page. Once they have your password, they take over your page and your Instagram if it’s connected. Some folks have even called a “Meta support number” they found online and ended up talking to another scammer who wanted to see their screen.
HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM: How to Avoid Food Truck Scams
1. Never pay a vendor fee through a payment app. Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle work like handing someone cash. Once it’s gone, it’s very hard to get back. A real event organizer will take a check, a card payment, or a payment through a website you can verify. If someone insists on an app payment, walk away.
2. Verify through a side door. Don’t reply to the email and don’t call the number in the message. Look up the event, the venue, or the organization yourself, find their official page or phone number, and ask them directly whether this person works with them. One new food truck owner in Wisconsin does exactly this. She contacts the venue owner first and asks if the person is really hosting an event there. That works.
3. Treat urgency as a warning sign. “Spots are almost gone,” “pay today,” “your permit expires.” A real opportunity will still be there after you make one phone call.
4. Check the sender, not just the name. A name can say anything. Look at the actual email address, and be suspicious of a free Gmail address claiming to be a big organization. Scammers can also fake an email address so it looks legit, so when in doubt, contact the organization on your own.
5. For big catering orders, get a deposit and talk to a real person. Call the client, meet them in person if you can, and don’t buy a pile of ingredients on the strength of a PDF. Don’t assume an order is real just because it uses a well-known company or school name.
6. Lock down your Facebook page. Turn on two-step login for your personal account, since that’s what controls your business page. Make sure at least one other person you trust is an admin. And remember the rule: Facebook doesn’t send page violation notices through Messenger or comments. Go to your page settings or Business Suite directly, and don’t click the link in the message.
7. Never let a “support agent” see your screen. Real support doesn’t cold-call you and ask for screen sharing or passwords. If you need Facebook help, get there through the official Help Center.
8. Give your business its own email and a strong password. Use a separate email address for the business, a different password for every account, and a password manager if you can stand it. Turn on two-step verification for that email, because it’s the key to everything else, including your Google Business Profile. I do the same thing on this newsletter website. It has two-step login to protect all our subscribers, and it takes a few seconds that are well worth it.
9. Report it and tell your people. If you get a scam message, report it, delete it, and mention it in your local food truck group. Vendors who share what they see keep the next person from getting burned. If you’ve already paid, contact your bank or payment app right away and file a report with your local police.
One rule to remember: If someone wants your money or your password, stop and verify before you do anything else.
While you’re locking things down, take a look at your Google Business Profile too. It’s another account worth protecting, and it’s the one customers see first when they search for food near them. If you haven’t grabbed PARKED TO BOOKED, it’s free on the Products Page. https://www.myfavoritefoodtruck.com/products/parked-to-booked-the-strategic-google-business-profile-playbook-for-food-truck-operators
⚡ QUICK BITES
📰 Industry News: Scam Warnings Are Popping Up Across the Midwest
Wisconsin’s consumer protection department and police and city officials in Dubuque, Iowa, have both put out vendor warnings about fake event invitations. The Wisconsin warning points out that the scam isn’t limited to sports events, so don’t assume you’re safe just because you’re nowhere near a stadium. If your area hasn’t had a warning yet, that doesn’t mean it isn’t coming. Stay vigilant.
💬 FOOD TRUCK MAILBAG (Q&A)
Q: How do I know if an event invitation is a scam?
A: Take a breath, and don’t send anything yet. Find the event on your own, through the venue’s website or the city’s page, and call or message them using the contact info you found yourself. Ask if the person is really involved and how vendors are supposed to register. If the event doesn’t exist, or the organizer has never heard of them, you just saved yourself a few hundred dollars. And if they get pushy when you say you’ll check first, that tells you everything you need to know.
Q: What should I do if I already paid a scammer?
A: Call your bank or the payment app right away and report it, then file a report with your local police. Move fast, because recovery gets harder with every day that passes. Then warn other vendors in your area so it doesn’t happen to them.
Q: What should I do if my Facebook page gets hacked?
A: Go to Facebook’s official Help Center from your own browser, not from a link in a message, and follow the steps to recover your account. Change your passwords, turn on two-step login, and let your followers know through another channel so they don’t click anything weird posted on your page.
Got a question for next week? Reply directly to this issue!
Rob West
My Favorite Food Truck Newsletter
Let’s keep building, one parking spot at a time. 🚚
🎁 SHARE & EARN REWARDS
Know a fellow food truck, trailer, or pop-up owner who could use this? Forward it along. A heads-up from a friend is the best scam protection there is.
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