Pubs warned over champagne scam

Pubs are being warned about a fresh wave of email scams involving orders for expensive champagne.

Fraudsters are believed to be targeting pubs and trying to buy large quantaties of expensive champagne using stolen credit cards.

The email has been sent from a number of different addresses requesting to buy 24 bottles of Louis Roederer 2002 Cristal champagne in gift boxes, which can cost £175 a bottle.

Henry Willett, licensee at the Black Horse, Kent, was targeted by the scam. He became suspicious after noticing that it was an unusually large request. "They emailed me at 7am saying they wanted 24 bottles of Cristal for a function next month. He said he was happy to come and pick them up.

"It had scam written all over it. I emailed a quote and later I got a call on an international number. I told him I didn't take credit cards and he just hung up."

Chris Felton, fraud prevention team leader at Metropolitan Police, said these sorts of scams were "big business" currently, especially with expensive goods such as fine wines and champagnes.

"Pubs, bars and restaurants are targets as they don't usually go through the same background checks that companies who do business online regularly do," he said.

Felton advised: "Check out the delivery address they provide. If it looks like a garage or somewhere unlike where you would usually deliver then don't risk it.