A bakery in Merseyside has become a victim of identity theft. A fraudster, claiming to be connected with Liverpool’s artisan bakery and patisserie Satterthwaites, misled hundreds of people into sending money by electronic transfer for concert and festival tickets, which never materialised.

Music fans looking for tickets on web forums were contacted by someone claiming they had tickets to sell and giving the bakery’s contact details as their own, while asking for the money to be forwarded by electronic transfer.

Roger Wilson, owner of the Crosby-based business, said the bakery first started receiving calls from disgruntled music fans back in June. "It has been irritating to have to take these calls," he said. "The first person who rang just wanted to check she hadn’t missed out on a chance to get tickets."

She had looked up the bakery on the web and was suspicious it was a scam, so phoned to check. Wilson said they haven’t kept track of the number of calls, but there have been "enough for them to be a nuisance". He also said some people have been quite aggressive at the shock of finding they’ve been scammed.

Wilson emailed his local paper to try and publicise what was happening. He later had a visit from the local police after a victim of the scam in Essex had reported it. "They are just as much a victim as we are," said Wilson.

The bakery’s website now hosts a warning and police are investigating.

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