Pirates and Poachers Persist -

Room block poachers, pirates, and scammers are consistent sources of frustration for those in the business events industry.

Room block poachers/pirates/scammers have been around, it seems, forever. Maybe the only break the industry has gotten from these scammers was during the pandemic, when there were no physical events they could benefit from.

We wrote about the problem of third-party companies trying to sell rooms directly to attendees and exhibitors a decade ago and even before then, back in 2013 — and it feels like not much has changed since then. But on the upside, the methods to counter their efforts remain relevant, including those published in an Events Industry Council white paper in 2014 (and updated in 2018).

A recent post on the PCMA Catalyst community demonstrated that this remains an industry frustration. Colleen Cable, director of conferences for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, asked industry colleagues to weigh in on how they deal with it.

“We are inundated every year with spam/scam companies /organizations/ individuals contacting our exhibitors and sponsors trying to ‘confirm table details,’ sell our attendees list, or upsell them on more expensive hotel reservations, all with the explicit or implicit suggestion that they represent my organization,” Cable wrote. “The main way they do this is through phone [calls] and their tone is very aggressive. We are constantly messaging our group [to share that] that these communications are fraudulent, sending cease and desists, and even reporting [them] to the FCC and state attorney general, but the onslaught never seems to taper off. Has anyone else dealt with this or have any other solutions that have worked?”

Malinda Armstrong, senior director of meetings for the Adhesive & Sealant Council, Inc., and Lauren Rios, vice president, sales & marketing, Platinum XP, commented on Cable’s post, sharing similar experiences. “We received an email yesterday regarding selling a discounted room rate for our annual convention,” Armstrong wrote. “We typically email our contacts to inform them of the spam emails. We also post a note on our website.”

Rios said her organization has been experiencing this issue with “scammers contacting our speakers and trying to get them to book their rooms ASAP in order not to incur a higher rate, which is obviously not true,” she said. She added that it was a newer problem for Platinum XP, and their response was to reach out to the scammers directly and send cease and desist notices. She also expressed interest in hearing what other planners are doing to counter the issue.

Attorney Joshua Grimes had a few suggestions:

“Consider ways to better protect your exhibitor and sponsor lists. Most scammers aren’t going to spend hours trying to access lists that are protected from easy disclosure. If you provide exhibitor/sponsor/attendee lists to sponsors and others, make sure they agree not to share the lists without your group’s permission. Regular messaging to those coming to your meeting to book only within your blocks is also helpful.”

Grimes was not encouraging, however, about the FTC or state authorities addressing the issue. “This is not a new problem,” he wrote, and in his experience, “they haven’t helped so far.”