Quebec farmers speak out after fraud leaves them with $27K loss

For Matt Penney and Alana Cosgrove, life at Pengrove Farms in Hudson, Que., is busy.

Feeding animals, collecting fresh eggs and keeping the store running are all part of the daily routine.

It’s a routine that was upended this spring when they fell victim to a fraud.

Someone claiming to represent a catering company placed a wholesale meat order worth about $17,000, the couple told Global News.

They said the payment was approved through their point-of-sale system, Square, so they fulfilled the order.

When the same customer tried placing another large order the following week, only part of the payment went through.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

That’s when they say they became suspicious and refused to release any more product.

“We asked them to come in person to pay it and they never showed up again so we turned it over for product in our store — but we had already sent out $27,000 worth of product in those two weeks,” Penney said.

Nearly six weeks later, the couple say they were notified through Square that the transactions were fraudulent.

They were held financially responsible for $27,000.

“Square started seizing all of our daily sales, and so anything that would come through Square in our store would be seized automatically to pay back that debt that Square deems is our responsibility,” Cosgrove said. “So we decided to stop taking credit and debit cards and go cash only in the store because there was no other way for us to run the business.”

The couple say they’ve since reached an agreement with Square to repay the amount over the next 12 months.

Global News has reached out to Square for comment, but has yet to hear back.

While a GoFundMe has raised over $13,000 to help offset some of the loss, they say this isn’t just about their farm.

Working with dozens of Quebec producers, they hope sharing their story leads to stronger protections for small businesses and greater vigilance.

“We’re hoping that the more people get eyes on this story that more pressure can be put at a policy level to maybe start changing some of these policies to start protecting businesses more than protecting only banks,” Cosgrove said.