Chicago Restaurant Victimized by Imposter Account on Delivery App

Business is back to normal at Smoque BBQ on Pulaski and Grace in the Old Irving Park neighborhood, but owners are still searching for answers after an account impersonated the restaurant on the popular food delivery app DoorDash.

“We’re getting drivers showing up asking to pick up orders we’ve never received and presumable aren’t going to get payment for because the payment is getting funneled to this phantom site,” said Barry Sorkin, owner of Smoque BBQ.

An imposter set up a fake DoorDash account to steal money from customers orders.

“We’re trying to figure out why this keeps happening and what can be done about this because it is concerning – you’ve got customers that are, as far as they can tell,placing legitimate orders,” said Sorkin.

The scam happened to Smoque BBQ last month and then again just this week.

“You’d really have to know what you’re looking for. I mean their menu is the same. The photographer on the menu is different but the average person wouldn’t know that,” Sorkin said.

Smoque BBQ posted on social media asking customers to stop ordering on DoorDash until the issue’s resolved.

“It’s a little unclear to me now how somebody is able to set up this sort of alternate storefront with our name on it without going through a series of checks.” said Sorkin. “I had to send (DoorDash) a lot of validating paperwork so I could show them I was the legitimate owner of the business. My question is how did someone manage to set up this alternate site without going through those steps?”

In a statement to NBC 5, DoorDash says in part it has moved to “deactivate the fraudulent store, and reinstate the correct restaurant on our platform,” and that they “regret this incident.”

“We were concerned that we were going to be dealing with this for sometime. It does seem that DoorDash has addressed this more quickly this time.” Sorkin said. “I’m hoping that DoorDash has a way of addressing this and preventing it from happening in the future.”

FULL STATEMENT FROM DOORDASH:

“As part of our commitment to providing a safe, high-quality service for merchants, we continually monitor the platform to detect and prevent fraudulent behavior. We have collaborated with Smoque BBQ to understand the recent situation, deactivate the fraudulent store, and reinstate the correct restaurant on our platform. We regret this incident and if any member of our community identifies unusual activity with their account, we strongly encourage them to reach out to DoorDash support immediately.”