Press Release
Aug 06, 2024
Leah Lawrence | Oncology News Central
Anyone registering for a hematology/oncology conference in recent years may have noticed fraud alerts related to entities falsely claiming partnerships with major medical societies. One of the most recent examples involves the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s (IASLC’s) 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).
IASLC recently shared a fraud warning with its potential registrants, cautioning them to beware of “fraudulent entities like Global Travel Experts Team or info@wclcconference.org falsely claiming partnership with WCLC 2024.” The information specifies that registration and housing are only managed by the WCLC 2024 Registration & Housing Team. According to IASLC, it recently learned that someone was using information from the meeting’s website in an attempt to fraudulently charge potential registrants.
“A meeting attendee noticed this was suspicious and alerted IASLC, and the attendee was able to avoid the attempt,” IASLC told Oncology News Central. “We also learned that some of our meeting speakers were approached as part of a scheme to provide travel information. Some of our speakers alerted us to this issue, and we were able to reach out to our travel partner agency and alert all our speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors of this attempt.”
IASLC’s warning on the conference website alerts visitors to be vigilant about fraudulent attempts. “To our knowledge, no registrant has lost any money due to this scheme,” IASLC said. “We will continue to remain vigilant about these fraudulent attempts and ensure our meeting registrants, exhibitors, speakers, and attendees have a safe and secure meeting experience.”
Conference-Related Fraud Schemes Growing
IASLC has not been alone in facing these issues. The 2024 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting information packet acknowledged that it was aware that one or more unauthorized companies were using deceptive advertising methods to direct users to fraudulent websites that claimed to be associated with housing and registration for the conference.
Ahead of its upcoming 2024 annual meeting, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) alerted attendees that SPARGO, Inc., is the only official housing provider for the conference, noting that it has been “made aware of ‘pirate’ registration and housing companies and travel agencies that aggressively pursue attendees to register them for the meeting and book their guest rooms at supposedly significant discounts.”
Similarly, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) also recently cautioned attendees to only book registration and housing through SPARGO. “Conferences have dealt with these kinds of scams for well over a decade,” ASCO told Oncology News Central. “It’s not unique to healthcare, and it’s not new.”
Addressing the Problem
In 2019, the U.S. Congress attempted to address online booking scams by prohibiting “third-party hotel-booking websites from marketing or selling reservations for, a hotel room if the booking site states or implies that it is affiliated with the hotel owner or operator when it is not.”
However, William F. Reed, chief event strategy officer at ASH, said that “the bad actors are becoming increasingly more clever about their deceptive practices.”
According to Reed, many meeting organizers have supported the need for intervention through a sign-on campaign organized by many event-industry organizations and the U.S. Travel coalition. As a result of that collaborative effort, on Sept. 1, 2023, members of Nevada’s Congressional delegation, led by Representative Susie Lee and signed by Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto and Representatives Steven Horsford and Dina Titus, wrote to Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan, calling for a final rule to crack down on business impersonation fraud.
In the letter, they wrote, “The proliferation of impersonation fraud has proven especially damaging to the face-to-face business events industry, as impersonators have more and more regularly sought financial gain by advertising for fake exhibitions, tradeshows, and other business events. This targeted fraud threatens to put a damper on an industry that has long been a driving force for economic growth – for event organizers, host venues, and surrounding communities.”
Reed encouraged others to amplify this letter through social media platforms, “thanking the Congressional leaders for their advocacy, and noting that this is an issue impacting your organization.”
For Now, Best Advice Is “Pay Attention”
Until the fraud is more widely addressed, oncology conference attendees should always note official registration or housing vendors as listed on society websites.
“The primary way anyone combats [these scams] is making attendees aware to pay attention and to only give their information to ASCO or our vendor for housing/registration, SPARGO,” ASCO said. “The primary change is that the fake sites and communications are getting better and more realistic. Similar to phishing scams, it is easier for attendees to click on a fake site recommended by Google, thinking they are booking through ASCO but actually getting a fraudulent site.”
ASCO also noted that it follows all the recommended industry steps for combatting these scams, as laid out by the American Society of Association Executives, which include educating attendees, monitoring for unauthorized activity, guarding information, and selectively registering domains.
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