Watch out for the dinosaur scandal

Like many Internet users, Catherine Giroix wanted to spoil her children, when she bought four tickets for the Jurassic Fest, the Life Size Mechanical Dinosaur Exhibition, which will take place later this month in the parking lot of Quartier Dix 30 in Brosard. ‘October. Unless she quickly fell into a trance.

“A unique opportunity to come face to face with various gorgeous and moving prehistoric creatures, to see teeth, to see them shining, to see their tails flutter and to hear their majestic roar”, the event’s Facebook page, in English.

No business linked to this page, which has over 92,000 people interested in Jurassic Fest. The show has seemed a bit unfocused in recent episodes, from October 22 to 31.

“We ended our collaboration with this promoter on Monday evening,” said Dix 30 spokeswoman Patrice Peron, adding that suspicions of fraud raised by customers prompted her to investigate.

Yesterday afternoon, the Jurassic Fest event page provided information to “Quebec’s amazing people” who said they were looking for another place.

Catherine Girox, sorry for her purchase.

“I am usually very vigilant. You can pay via PayPal, which is always a good sign. But I need to do more checks, ”said the 28-year-old woman, who lives on the south coast of Montreal.

She wrote a letter to the managers who responded to her. On the other hand, the radio silence from them when she asked for a refund. “My credit card issuers tell me, in fact, that their site is fraudulent. They want to wait a week before the transaction is canceled. It’s time to see if the managers can answer me,” she explains.

Mystery Administrator

According to our information, the organizer of the Jurassic Fest is the Australian company Festival Ignite Limited, which has been in existence since June 29, 2020.

In the purchase confirmation she received via email – which is far from all customers – no trace of the promoter name. However, we noted that Canadian and Quebec taxes were not deducted from the $ 85 bill.

From Facebook, people are invited to a website, to buy tickets in English only. The promoter suggested that the size of the tickets be limited and that they should not be sold on the site. After all, no refunds, it is written everywhere.

The Festival Ignite domain name jurrassicfestivmontreal.com left some traces when it was registered anonymously, according to ESET’s Alexis Dorais-Jonkas.

A cybersecurity expert points out that there are 55 similar sites for similar incidents in Calgary, Edmonton and Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney, Australia.

“It simply came to our notice then. It definitely raises questions of legitimacy, “said ESET’s intelligence and security team leader.

Facebook, for its part, said it was “confirming the incident”. “The audit team is looking at the program and seeing if Facebook is following the policies,” a spokesman said.

As for the promoter, he did not respond to our multiple interview requests.