Welsh business owner left ‘really embarrassed’ after food festival scam
Nation.Cymru Staff
A business owner who was named Wales Young Entrepreneur of the Year has warned others about a sophisticated scam after believing she had secured a last-minute stall at a major food festival.
Harriet Thomas from Abergavenny, who runs the knitwear and homeware business Cosy Throws, said she was “really embarrassed” about the “complete scam”.
Before discovering the offer was fake, Harriet had initially shared her happiness at securing a place at Abergavenny Food Festival.
On the Cosy Throws Facebook page on 28 August, Harriet wrote: “So unbelievably excited to announce we’ve been approached to have a stall at the 2026 Abergavenny Food Festival!
“It’s an amazing event we’ve been to as a customer so many times so to be part of the magic is such an honour! We will have a stall and a workshop area open for the whole weekend!”
The annual food festival, which will run from 19 – 20 September this year, attracts some 15,000 visitors with offerings from over 120 stallholders.
Applications for stalls at the 2026 festival closed at the end of March, with organisers saying they were “carefully curating the stallholder lineup” across four dedicated areas.
The festival encouraged those who missed out to apply for the 2027 event, saying it would announce on social media when applications reopened.
However, a number of business owners have reported receiving convincing scam emails and booking forms offering places at the event due to other vendors dropping out.
Shortly after the original post sharing her excitement, Harriet returned to her business’s Facebook page to share the news that Cosy Throws had fallen victim to the scam.
Harriet, who started Cosy Throws in 2020 and has since been named Wales Young Entrepreneur of the Year as well as an E2 Media Influential Woman in Business, said that though she is “usually a switched on cookie”, the correspondence “looked so realistic”.
She explained: “We had an email saying that there had been cancellations and did we want a last minute stall, which we jumped at because it’s a great event…
“They then sent me a form to fill in… it looked so realistic. It was unreal. It had all the same fonts, the same colours, the drop-down menus, the exact listings of where you could book a stall, like in the Market Hall, the Castle, the Lower Brewery Yard. It was so, so well done…
“I got really excited, filled in all the form, all my personal details, all the business details, this, that and whatever. This went on for a couple of days back and forth, trying to get it all sorted…
“I really hope nobody else gets caught out because it is quite normal… sometimes something comes up and other traders have to drop out and then people get contacted. Usually it is over email these days and links, and you tend to book everything that way, so it didn’t feel fishy.”
Harriet apologised to her 10,000 Facebook followers, saying she was “embarrassed that I didn’t see through it” and had reported it to Action Fraud.
She also advised that, although the email appeared legitimate, it had been sent from a Gmail account, while genuine Abergavenny Food Festival emails use the festival’s own domain.
Despite the setback, Harriet shared that she would try to secure a spot for her stall again next year.
Commenters were quick to reassure Cosy Throws, writing “Please don’t beat yourself up,” and “Feel for you. Keep going!!”.
Many agreed that such scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and that the email and form looked convincing. Several, including Black Mountain Coffee Ltd and The Hungry Cowboy, said they had received the same email and reported it.
Abergavenny Food Festival posted a ‘scam warning for producers’ on 22 July, which has since been pinned on their Facebook. It reads: “We’re aware of fake messages doing the rounds on Social Media asking for stall payments.
“This isn’t us – all our stalls are filled, and we’ll only ever email from @abergavennyfoodfestival.com
“Please don’t pay, and double-check the sender’s address before trusting any message like this. Stay safe out there.”
Cosy Throws’ blankets, beanies, decorations and DIY kits, as well as information about their workshops and upcoming festival appearances, are available on their website here.
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