LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Ken Mueller is a bourbon connoisseur always on the hunt. He's got a huge collection at his Louisville home, a hobby he shares with friends and family.
"The excitement is in the unicorn, the hunt for the right bottle," he said.
But that hunt led him to an advertisement on social media, one he now wishes he didn't see.
"I should have been smarter, to be very honest with you," Mueller said. "It was a Facebook ad. It looked spectacular and it was a little beverage store in southern Indiana who was going out of business, and they had a lot of dusty bottles and stuff that they were getting rid of at cost — or just under cost — just to settle tax liens."
So Mueller purchased five bottles from a website called Whiskey Shack, totaling $110, including a bottle of 20-year Pappy Van Winkle for $35.99.
"The website was perfect," he said.
Mueller is just one of dozens of bourbon lovers hit by scammers running the website, many losing hundreds of dollars in the search for rare, high-end bottles.
"It had a multiple links and pages," Mueller said of the site. "I'm seeing bottles that I have never seen before ... and a Pappy was only $20 to $30, which should have set off the flags right there."
Whitney Adkins with the Better Business Bureau said people must remember to do research on unknown companies before buying from them. Read shopper reviews and check the BBB's Scam Tracker, she said, which shows several southern Indiana residents lost money from Whiskey Shack.
"We definitely have seen an uptick across the board with scams this holiday season," Adkins said. "More consumers are shopping. More consumers are shopping online. It's a hectic time of year. We're thinking with our emotions rather than rationally."
All Whiskey Shack victims have similar stories, scammers providing fake tracking numbers and supposedly sending a package too light to be the full bottles of alcohol to a wrong address.
"They delivered on a street in southeast Louisville and wasn't even my name," Mueller said. "They either intentionally or unintentionally messed up the shipping label."
A customer wrote on the BB Scam Tracker that they lost $110 to Whiskey Shack.
"1 month after order I was supplied with a tracking number (USPS) that says it was delivered 5 days after the order to my address," the customer wrote. "I have had several back and forth's with "Joe (support@zionrvrent.com) who insists it was delivered to my mailbox. I checked with the post office and the package was mislabeled and delivered to an address the other side of town. It was also weighed at under 2 pounds when there were 6 full bottles involved, plus the fact that the Post Office confirms they never ship alcohol. Several distilleries and other legit websites are now reporting that this is a scam."
A Louisville resident also reported to Scam Tracker that they also lost nearly $500 to a similar scam with a different fake bourbon website, of which there are several online.
"I don't buy anything on Facebook anymore," Mueller said. "If I see something attractive, I will look and find it and do research on it beforehand."
Adkins added another safeguard is to always pay by credit card, because cash apps and gift cards are hard to ever get your money back.
Mueller is now fighting with his credit card company to get his money back and is hoping others will learn from him.
"It's a $100. It's not going to make or break my lifestyle," he said. "But, by the same token, man, it was such a good scam."
The operators of Whiskey Shack didn't reply to a request for comment.
Dozens of bourbon-lovers have been hit by scammers running the website, many losing hundreds of dollars in the search for rare, high-end bottles.
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