The City of Port Colborne is warning vendors, suppliers, and local businesses to stay sharp after a surge in reported fraud attempts tied to the upcoming Canal Days Marine Heritage Festival. The city says scammers are sending fake emails and pushing for quick e-transfer payments for vendor spaces.
The alert from the city came on June 25, 2026, about five weeks before the 48th annual festival runs from July 31 to August 3. City of Port Colborne officials have confirmed the fraud is external and not linked to any breach of city systems.
Scammers have been reaching out directly to people using unofficial email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail. In many cases, they are pretending to be city staff or Canal Days organizers and pushing for quick payments or personal financial details.
The city is reminding everyone that official messages about vendor applications, payments, or festival operations will only ever come from email addresses ending in @portcolborne.ca. Anyone who gets a suspicious request should not send money or share information and instead call the city directly at 905-835-2900 to check if the message is real.
The Canal Days festival draws 60,000 to 70,000 visitors each summer and features more than 120 vendors. With the event only weeks away, the city says this is a peak time for vendor-related communications and wants to make sure everyone stays protected. This year’s festival is presented by GIO Rail, which renewed its commitment as presenting sponsor for four years.
