Fake florist scams: What to watch out for this Mother's Day
Fake florist scams: What to watch out for this Mother's Day
Mother's Day is both a popular and lucrative holiday in the United States. The National Retail Federation's annual survey found that in 2025, 84% of Americans planned to celebrate the holiday, and spending was expected to reach $34.1 billion.
Flowers are the most common Mother's Day gift. According to the National Retail Federation, nearly three-quarters (74%) of celebrants planned to buy flowers, and spending on flowers was an estimated $3.2 billion. This trend makes Mother's Day a major commercial event for florists-and an ideal opportunity for scammers. In May 2025, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) warned about a rise in "phony florist" scams that follow a similar pattern. Shoppers place and pay for orders through unfamiliar online flower sellers and might receive wilted substitutions, the wrong bouquet, delayed service, or, worst of all, nothing.
Unfortunately, as SmartCustomer has observed, this type of scam is just one component of a growing online fraud problem. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, up 25% from the year before, while online shopping issues remained one of the most commonly reported categories in consumer fraud data. The Pew Research Center also found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of U.S. adults had experienced at least one kind of online scam or attack, and roughly a third said they had purchased something online that never arrived or turned out to be counterfeit.
Common Flower Delivery Scams
Not every flower delivery mishap is necessarily a scam. Some negative experiences are a result of routine service delivery issues, such as overwhelmed partners or a scarcity of local supplies that might necessitate substitutions. But online, the line between sloppy execution and outright deception has become much harder to detect. The BBB's 2024 Scam Tracker Risk Report identified online purchase scams as one of the riskiest scam categories consumers face.
A sense of urgency makes flower scams especially effective around Mother's Day. When shoppers wait too long to order from a trusted local florist, they are more likely to click the first seemingly legitimate website or social ad they come across that promises same-day delivery and a beautiful arrangement at a reasonable price. Given that so many consumers shop online for Mother's Day, and the rising number of online scams, the internet becomes a likely entry point for fraud.
Increasingly, the misuse of technology helps deceive consumers. Vectra AI reported that AI-enabled scams surged 1,210% in 2025, dramatically outpacing the growth of other types of fraud. Such scams might include fake storefronts that have AI-generated or altered product images and false customer testimonials.
This article shares five common scams to watch out for before purchasing flowers for Mother's Day this year and provides reviews from customers who reported each type on SmartCustomer's platform.
Scam #1: The Missing Bouquet
A common scam is when purchased flowers are never delivered. Some online flower sellers might promise delivery windows that local fulfillment partners cannot realistically meet. Once payment is processed, the company might become difficult or impossible to reach. BBB consumer alerts and scam reports describe buyers who received misleading delivery updates after payment and then lost time fruitlessly trying to get refunds.
This type of scam can be especially difficult because Mother's Day is so meaningful and emotionally charged for many consumers. When flower arrangements aren't delivered, it wastes the consumer's time and money. But it also means that the person's goal to honor someone special for Mother's Day doesn't happen, which can take an emotional toll.
One SmartCustomer reviewer shared how she'd been impacted by this scam. She'd purchased flowers for her daughter-in-law for Mother's Day, but they didn't arrive. When she reached out to customer service, she was told they'd made a note of her concern and were investigating the issue. Despite multiple attempts to resolve the issue, the flowers were never delivered, and she didn't receive a refund. Another reviewer shared how a flower service kept the delivery tracker on, that is, until the day of delivery. The flowers were never delivered, despite customer service telling him they would resolve the issue.
Scam #2: The Bait and Switch
Another common scam is essentially a bait and switch. The BBB has warned consumers that some phony florists do deliver the ordered flowers; however, the bouquet that arrives looks nothing like the picture of the arrangement on their website.
Fraudsters' use of AI-generated imagery makes this particular scam even more troubling. Consumers might no longer only be looking at professional images of flower arrangements on a website; they might be looking at pictures of computer-generated bouquets. Fraud reporting on AI-assisted scams increasingly points to synthetic or manipulated images compromising online shoppers' trust.
SmartCustomer reviewers also shared personal experiences with this bait-and-switch scam. When one reviewer received a floral gift delivery from her sister, the flowers looked nothing like what the sister thought she was paying for. The actual bouquet, which was also delivered late, was smaller than what was shown on the website and had fewer roses and a poor-quality vase. The other flowers in the arrangement didn't match what was shown in the photo, and the service failed to include a basic flower preservative packet that helps keep flowers healthy longer.
A second reviewer shared a similar experience after paying for and expecting a premium flower arrangement to be delivered to her mother on Mother's Day. The picture on the website featured 12 roses, but the delivered bouquet had eight roses and three lilies, some with burnt tips.
Scam #3: Unauthorized Overbilling
A third type of scam happens when fraudsters inflate the total amount charged at checkout. Victims of this type of fraud might encounter unexpected service fees or buried upgrade clauses. Essentially, they are ultimately charged more than they believed they'd authorized. These tactics work because many consumers don't review the final amount charged for flowers unless the discrepancy is unusually large.
SmartCustomer reviewers also shared experiences with this type of scam. For example, one reviewer approved charges for $74 for a dozen roses but ended up being charged $94. A second reviewer reported being charged an exorbitant amount for a service fee for what turned out to be terrible service.
Scam #4: Illusory Customer Service
The fourth type of scam happens when fraudulent sites use chat tools, which might be live or AI-assisted, that seem helpful and convincing at first. So convincing, in fact, that the consumer might not take the time to seek out objective feedback and information from customer reviews. Instead, the consumer finalizes the purchase and only later discovers, when customer service becomes unresponsive and inefficient, that they've been scammed.
SmartCustomer reviewers also provided firsthand reports of this type of scam. For example, one reviewer reached out to customer service after the flowers they ordered weren't delivered. When his email inquiries only received AI responses, he called what turned out to be an overseas answering service, which offered assurances that they were taking additional time to research the matter but provided no concrete answers. After they refused to give a refund, he found that they had lots of negative feedback from customers online.
Another reviewer shared how she reached out to customer service when she ran into a curious issue: Every time she clicked on the picture of a particular bouquet, a different image showed up. An AI assistant told her they would fix the problem and send the flowers that day. The flowers were never delivered, despite the reviewer's follow-up attempts to resolve the issue with AI-enabled customer service.
A third reviewer reached out to customer service when he didn't receive a delivery update about flowers he'd ordered for his wife. They noted that there were 42 people in the call queue ahead of him but that a customer service agent would call him back. When the agent finally returned his call three hours later, they told him the flowers were out for delivery. The bouquet ended up not being delivered in time. Because it was so difficult to get a hold of a real person, much of his subsequent communication was relegated to AI chatbots, which proved both fruitless and frustrating.
Scam #5: The Social Media Ad Trap
The fifth type of scam involves luring victims in through sponsored social posts. FTC reporting shows that social media remains a major channel for fraud losses. In late 2025, Reuters reported that Meta had been earning substantial revenue from a flood of scam-related and otherwise prohibited advertisements across its platforms.
For Mother's Day shoppers, that means the bouquet in a slick Instagram or Facebook ad may lead to a fraudulent storefront. Scammers use AI to create fake ads that mimic trusted brands and retailers, making those promotions especially convincing.
SmartCustomer reviewers also experienced this type of scam. One reviewer shared how he'd clicked on a Facebook ad and ordered two bouquets of flowers through the website that came up. When the flowers weren't delivered, he wasn't able to check his order status. Each time he reached out to the site's customer service chat service, the screen froze. He noted how he wished he'd read the reviews before using the fraudulent service.
A second reviewer clicked on an advertisement for what appeared to be a local service. The delivered flowers not only didn't match the picture, but they were wilted and old. Customer service reassured him they'd look into it and get back to him within a day, but ultimately never responded.
How to Protect Yourself This Mother's Day
As a first line of defense against scams this Mother's Day, consumers should avoid waiting until the last minute to order flowers. Allow yourself enough time to research the seller before buying, including verifying whether the site has an authentic physical address and working phone number. Read the company's fine print for hidden fees or automatic upgrade language.
Avoid one-click purchasing through social media advertisements for flower deals without verifying their legitimacy, especially steeply discounted ads that have countdown timers or warnings of limited inventory. When an ad touts that same messaging and claims to be from an established retailer, make sure you're being led to the real site by double-checking the URL with the retailer's verified web address. Determine whether the site allows you to use a major credit card so you have access to dispute protections if something goes awry.
Reading consumer reviews is another critical line of defense against scams. This advice holds true even when websites appear professional, and the photos of their flower arrangements and gift items seem authentic. Most Americans are aware of the scale of online fraud, but many don't take the necessary precautions to prevent it. For example, in 2025, the Pew Research Center found that 71% of U.S. adults are pretty confident they know how to avoid falling for a scam, yet 73% have already been victims of online fraud. Reading independent reviews is not foolproof, but it remains one of the best defenses against fraud available to consumers. Many SmartCustomer reviewers noted how they wished they'd looked up a company online before they made the purchase.
Scams With Both Financial and Emotional Repercussions
Mother's Day flower scams are just one type of fraud in an increasingly larger consumer fraud crisis. The FTC's latest data shows reported fraud losses increasing dramatically, while the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported $16.6 billion in cybercrime losses in 2024. AI is making fraud easier to scale and personalize-and more difficult to detect.
But flower scams can be especially painful for consumers because they impact purchases that are personal, such as Mother's Day gifts. The potential for financial and emotional repercussions is exactly why shoppers should adopt what fraud experts increasingly describe as a zero-trust mindset: Verify first, then buy.
This story was produced by SmartCustomer and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Copyright 2026 Stacker Media, LLC
This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 5:00 AM.