Beware fake advent calendars!

Rogue gift websites have been selling fake Drinks by the Dram Advent Calendars. We are warning customers to be aware of these scam products.

In the last few days we’ve had a tidal wave of calls about a number of sites selling fake advent calendars.

They’re generally offering them at 50 to 70% off the normal price, and, unsurprisingly, what’s delivered is rubbish.

One fake calendar contained empty bottles and cheap trinkets

As is so often the case, when something looks too good to be true, it is.  These calendars are cheap fakes, riddled with spelling mistakes and full of empty bottles rather than actual drams.

Detail from one of the fakes, note all the typos

We immediately tried to get the sites selling them taken down, and with some degree of success, but for each one taken offline, two more sprang up to take their place.

Initially we thought they might just be phishing sites set up to harvest personal information from scammed customers (which they might still be) but, remarkably, they do actually seem to be shipping something to people who buy from them.  Sadly, none so far appear to contain any actual drams, the contents being more of the empty bottle and key-fob variety.

We know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but a lot of unsuspecting people are getting caught up in this scam and getting conned out of money they can’t really afford to lose.

This is what a genuine Bourbon Advent Calendar should look like

Justin Petszaft, Master of Malt Founder, was characteristically unimpressed:

“What kind of dickhead do you have to be to scam people like this, knowing that you’re going to ruin someone’s Christmas when they open up the first window and find a used plaster and a candy corn instead of a delicious dram of single malt whisky? The people perpetrating this obvious scam are utterly shameless. Don’t get taken in, don’t let your friends get taken in, and if you’ve been defrauded by one of these assholes contact PayPal immediately and get your money back.” He continued: “We’ve obviously contacted everyone we can about this – PayPal, the domain registry, the web hosts and other platform providers, but as soon as one site gets taken down, two more pop up in their place.”

So please be on the lookout for these fake calendars, and tell your friends to do the same:

-If the pricing seems too good to be true – assume it is!  Where you can, buy from a trusted site like masterofmalt.com 

-The fakes are easy to spot even because of the numerous spelling mistakes on the packaging such as “Calenday”, “Advane” and “Hane waxed” (we’ve never Hane waxed anything in our lives).. 

-If you buy a calendar and it doesn’t have 24 of our hand waxed drams inside, please immediately request a refund through PayPal or your credit card to give you the best chance of getting your money back.

-Please also report the site in question to PayPal or your card provider to add pressure for them to be taken down.

-If you do discover one of these webshites, please do let us know at customerservice@drinksbythedram.com so that we can add that retailer to our list of scam sites to be taken down.

Thank you for reading and have a good (fake free) Christmas!