ACCC Scamwatch Attendee List Scam Warning

Several AAFDA Members have recently been the target of phishing scammers.

Potential scammers are contacting organisers, exhibitors and attendees purporting to have visitor or attendee lists which they can then on sell for a nominated fee. This has been flagged with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

“We note your concerns about this scam and scammers sourcing emails of exhibitors participating in the specific events. Scams are getting more sophisticated, and scammers use technology to harvest emails and personal information from the internet. We have checked the scam website: www.thevisitorslists.com and note that the link is not active. ” , says the ACCC Scamwatch Division

The AAFDA or its members do not sell attendee/registration lists, nor do we authorise any third party to distribute or sell any related lists to our member events. If you receive an email offering to sell you a list of attendees, do not respond to it. By responding, even with a request to unsubscribe, you confirm that your email address is a valid one. This may increase the likelihood that you’ll be contacted again.

How did they get your email address? Software programs can crawl websites in search of email addresses that are listed on them (identifiable by the “@” sign).

You can report scams to www.scamwatch.gov.au.