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Conference Scams
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Inventions
Recently, several scams have been brought to the attention involving
fictitious conferences. We wish to bring this type of activity to your
attention, as some of the people have been the unfortunate victims of these
fraudulent practices.
Scams of this nature involve announcing a fictitious conference and then
collecting fees from participants, sometimes for registration, but often for
accommodation. In the end, there is no conference and the funds are not
reimbursed.
Sometimes the emails announcing these fake conferences are poorly written and
are obviously fake. Other times however, the emails are very convincing and
include full agendas and other conference details. Often emails advertising the
fake conference are sent to different NGOs and networks who unwittingly pass the
information along to their members, thus lending legitimacy to this fictitious
event.
Some hints that a conference might not be real are:
•Participants told they must book accommodation at a specific hotel before
receiving assistance in procuring a travel visa
•Participants told to pay a registration "processing fee"
•No detailed contact information for the organization holding the conference
•A Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail address as the main contact point
•No website for the organization, only mentions of the conference on the
websites of other organizations
•Payment accepted only through Western Union or MoneyGram
| The emails inevitably trace to Nigeria or
other countries in West Africa, sometimes also to European countries
scheduled as the second conference location, but rarely to the country
where the organizers claims to be based.
People who sign up for the conferences will be told to contact
hotels, which always seem to use Yahoo.com addresses. They will be told
they can't get a US visitor's visa without the hotel reservation. When
they want to make a reservation they will be told to send cash by
Western Union, the classic 419 scam payment modality. |
More...
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