Conference scams
----------------
Dear colleagues,
Recently a number of messages are being sent to individuals and
to AFRO-NETS inviting them to Youth/NGO conferences in USA and
West Africa. The bait reads like this:
THE SPONSORSHIP PACKAGE WILL COVER THE FOLLOWING:
- Flight tickets from your country to New York and vice-versa;
- Accommodation
- Meals and refreshments for the entire summit duration;
- Per diem
And the real purpose of the message is:
However, each participant will be required to pay a registra-
tion fee of US$ 200.
If you have paid the fee you will never hear of them again.
Please be aware of these scams and don�t transfer any funds to
unknown people.
Best regards,
Dieter Neuvians
AFRO-NETS Moderator
Conference scams (2)
--------------------
I remember sending an alert on one such a course last year. If
they are the same people, why don't we expose them by disclosing
those who claim to be the organisers, and let them be black-
listed on our network?
John Arube-Wani
mailto:arube@chdc-muk.com
Conference scams (3)
--------------------
I almost fell victim this year. They guise under different no-
menclatures. Often they approach you by telling you that a young
girl (white in my own case) is interested in making friend with
you as an African and would be in Africa for a conference. If
you are the conference lover like me, you are interested. They
attempted me through a name: World Youth Movement and their con-
ference was purportedly on violence against children and pov-
erty. We exchanged mails until they asked me to pay up to 2,000
US$ to a hotel in Guinea Bissau. At that point, I wished them a
wonderful conference! Let's just be careful.
Raheem Usman Adebimmpe
mailto:adebimpeusman@yahoo.com
Conference scams (4)
--------------------
I really want to align with Arubi Wani. Confirmed fraudulent
messages should be exposed. This is necessary because if this
trend continues and if people see this network as vulnerable to
scam, then we may have more scam messages than reasonable ones
in our mail box and we will certainly gradually loose inter-
est(the yahoo messenger example).
I think I have benefited from this network and it will be bad
news if we cannot correspond with one another both as a group
and on individual basis. The purpose of this forum will cer-
tainly be defeated.
Best regards,
Dr. Abanum Mark
Central Hospital Agbor
Delta State
Nigeria
Tel: +234-8056440720
mailto:mark_opollo@yahoo.com
Conference scams (5)
--------------------
Dr Mark,
I think the conference scam mail is not emanating from this net-
work, nor is it peculiar to it. Indeed I received the scam mail
even before I subscribed to this network. I still have the con-
viction that our network is reliable and really working.
Raheem Usman
mailto:adebimpeusman@yahoo.com
Conference scams (6)
--------------------
I think this issue of conference scams must have to do with our
eagerness or otherwise. When you have such a mail, it's better
to confirm the source whether there is any object of reliabil-
ity.
When you find organisers who say they will sponsor and you have
to pay something to one unforeseen place, RUN AWAY.
If you are in doubt of any conference, throw it open to the net-
work so that those vast with information screening could help. I
believe the above steps would prove effective if we try them. I
have escaped from many and believe we could do the same.
Erinle Adeleye Ebenezer (MPSN, MBPS)
Drug Regulatory Unit
P.O.Box 2451
Gaborone, Botswana
Tel. Office: +267-3632376
Cell: +267-72968096
+267-71835732
mailto:eadeleye@yahoo.co.uk
Conference scams (7)
--------------------
Dear All,
I agree with Erinle Adeleye Ebenezer; the other things one could
do is:
1. write back to them asking them to give their telephone number
(they usually don't);
2. check out the web about the conference or the person, some-
times such scams are reported on the net;
3. they usually don't have a web address/URL.
These could be some other check out points. As Erinle Adeleye
Ebenezer says we need to share such information and probably
share that across other discussion groups too. Because these
guys seem to prowl among the discussion groups and probably also
give a lead to the moderator so that it is not allowed on the
discussion groups.
Regards,
Srinath Maddur
mailto:srimaddur@gmail.com
Conference scams (8)
--------------------
I also receive many conference mails and also for transfer of
huge funds from Africa!! Beware!!! They look for the gullible!!!
But unfortunately, the number of international conferences have
multiplied so much, these scammers are also taking advantage.
There is a mad rush of people to attend conferences. Let them be
converted into virtual conferences.
Let sanity prevail among the citizens of the world.
Kris Dev
mailto:krisdev@gmail.com
Conference scams (9)
--------------------
Dear colleagues,
In managing the AFRO-NETS discussion group SATELLIFE and our
moderator Dieter Neuvians would like to reassure you that we do
everything possible to prevent spam and other questionable mail
from being circulated on this list. Our technical platform is
setup in such a way that all e-mail messages sent to AFRO-NETS
are viewed by the moderator and suspicious messages are screened
out.
However, since all the messages are openly archived on the AFRO-
NETS web site (http://www.afronets.org), your e-mail addresses
are visible to anyone who visits this site. So, you may receive
spam sent to your individual e-mail address via this route or
from other lists to which you may subscribe.
The suggestions made so far are helpful. If you know of a spe-
cific conference scam(s) please do share this information on the
discussion group to protect others.
Kind regards,
Leela McCullough
SATELLIFE
Director of Information Services
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: +1-617-926-9400
Fax: +1-617-926-1212
mailto:leela@healthnet.org
http://www.healthnet.org
Conference scams (10)
---------------------
It is really disheartening to hear about these scams. I almost
fell for one last year but was smart enough to have pulled out
at the eleventh hour when I sensed danger.
Fidelis Mbah
Port Harcourt
Nigeria
mailto:fimbah@yahoo.com
Conference scams (11)
---------------------
Dear colleagues,
Till date what I have read in AFRO-NETS in the above mentioned
issue as the information from the "victims", all of them suc-
cessfully escaped from the "conference trap" either within short
time or after long time mail exchanges. So, it is evident that
we can discover the scams sooner or later. That means nothing to
be worried as we have means for exploring them.
On the other hand, it is possible that a vast and quickly inter-
active network like AFRO-NETS can't examine every conference
call through the moderating platform and it may not be of jus-
tice to shut the popular window for all the conference calls as
some of them are real and the calls can be disseminated conven-
iently and very fast with the modern ICT development dedicated
to the welfare of the population groups. Conferences are impor-
tant and few have doubts in the logic as people can interact
much more better in these conferences as they stay in contacts
of each other.
So, let us be confident on our capacities in the personal level
to identify the cyber decoy like Conference scams, we can rely
in our capabilities. Just awareness and a handful of handy
tricks (many of them has already been described by the "victims"
themselves!) are sufficient.
In my opinion, the best solution for the mentioned problem
should be fully participatory and beneficiary based (receiver
based), so the method can not only stop the false conference
calls through AFRO-NETS, but also can help us in individual lev-
els in our other types of day to day Internet contacts like Ya-
hoo, Gmail, Hotmail etc. and will be sustainable.
So, I request to not to close or delay the AFRO-NETS window
fully for all conference calls as many of them are meaningful,
helpful and can contribute significantly to our knowledge and
skills development for the betterment of our population.
Regards,
Dr. Shamim ul Moula
Dhaka, Bangladesh
mailto:shamimul.moula@gmail.com
--
[From the Moderator: AFRO-NETS members can rest assured that
genuine conference announcements will not suffer from these scam
that are relatively easy to recognise. D.N. Mod.]
Conference scams (13)
---------------------
General Scams/Conference Scams
Thanks a lot Kris. Only the gullible & greedy ones will fall for
the scams. How on earth will someone want to reap where he/she
did not sow? If you don't respond to the foolish & nonsense scam
mails, the scammers will be put out of biz. All should IGNORE
such mails pls. However any one who is greedy that responds must
be ready to pay a price for been a cheat. On conferences pls try
to verify.
O. Ani
mailto:anniemd2003@yahoo.co.uk
--
[From the Moderator: Since there are no more new aspects coming
in regarding conference scams I suggest to close the discussion
on this topic. D.N. Mod.]