Beware sham climate change conference in phishing comments from WGGWCC 08!

August 23, 2008 at 10:21 am | In Climate change, Environment, Global warming | 24 Comments
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Last week a lengthy comment arrived for moderation, I marked it as spam, but believe it is a sophisticated scam—an attempt at phishing.  The comment from Mrs. Osman began:

WGGWCC08 Announces the 3rd Global Warming and Climate Change International Conference & Exposition. (WGGWCC 08 )

On the behalf of the Organizing and Scientific Committees, the Working Group on Global Warming and Climate Change (WGGWCC) announces that the 3rd International Global Warming and Climate Change Conference & Industry Exposition (WGGWCC 08 ) will be held at the Hyde Park Hotel, London on September 26-30, 2008. We also would like to extend a special invitation to you and all your colleagues to participate in WGGWCC 08 events.

The event advertisement looked bogus to me for many reasons:

  • The street address given for the organisers is, upon checking a map of the area, apparently a London cemetery — St. Marylebone Crematorium, to be precise (indicating a rather dark sense of humour!)
  • The format of the London postcode given is invalid.
  • The London phone number supplied is not authentic: it begins with +44 70 … This is not a true London area code (which start +44 20 …).   It is, in fact, a “follow me” number that is often used by scammers to complicate matters.
  • The true Hyde Park Hotel in London has real phone and fax numbers with proper London area codes.  I contacted the Manager last week and was told he could guarantee that there is no WGGWCC conference taking place in his hotel on 26-30 September 2008.
  • The fake Hyde Park Hotel website provided in a link by WGGWCC comments directs you to a site designed to take your money as you provide details for a pseudo-room booking.  You will not get accommodation in the real hotel, and there is no conference to attend!
  • WGGWCC?  Never heard of it.  Perhaps an org title with Global Warming and Climate Change together indicate a degree of redundancy that made me smell a small rat?
  • The third international conference provides no information on previous events, and lacks named speakers and sponsors, despite calling for papers and offering travel and visa assistance to foreign attendees. 
  • A quick glance at the source code shows the amateur website is created using Yahoo! SiteBuilder with Yahoo! Webhosting.  No reputable organisation would use those tools.

All in all, a bad deal if you register for a non-existent conference and pay someone other than the real hotel manager for a non-existent room.

Bottom line: Please do not click on any links provided by WGGWCC.

For examples of the particular comment I’m alerting you to, please see Newsweek and Brave New Climate.[^ Barry Brook has removed the comment on his blog, but Newsweek are ignoring this issue, oh well.] [^Hooray!  Newsweek have listened ;-) ]

This scam appeared online in a modified form a couple of months ago.  A quick search shows a previous incarnation of 3rd International Global Warming and Climate Change Conference and Industry Exposition (WGGWCC 08 ) was advertised for 25-29 July 2008 in London by Bioversity.

My guess is that we shall see this four-day climate change event popping up and disappearing again until the perpetrators find something more profitable :-|

24 Comments »

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  1. Thanks inel, I’ve now spamified that comment.
    .
    [Response: Hello Barry, glad to hear it, and I am also pleased I found your blog recently. When I put my links back at the start of the new school year, I'll add Brave New Climate.]

    Comment by Barry Brook — August 24, 2008 #

  2. Thanks for getting the word out, I’ll repeat it.

    The Bioversity link doesn’t work now – was it advertised on the site or just in a comment? If the former, that suggests the website author was either fooled or in on the scam.
    .
    [Response: Hi Brian, I appreciate you repeating this, as you'll reach more influential people ;-) The entire Biodiversity site is inaccessible, as is Biodiversity International (wiki). It was advertised on the site as an event, with no link that I could find to any external website. It did not say much more than I said above, i.e. that there was a 3rd International Global Warming and Climate Change Conference and Industry Exposition (WGGWCC 08 ) on 25-29 July 2008 in London.]

    Comment by Brian Schmidt — August 24, 2008 #

  3. Bioversity is up now. I’ve sent them an email.

    What was it that first tipped you off – the phone code?

    Comment by Brian Schmidt — August 27, 2008 #

  4. Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the world, several New Zealanders have been caught by the “UK credit card scam”:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/4671266a13.html

    I wonder (idly) if there’s any connection.

    Comment by Mark Hadfield — August 27, 2008 #

  5. Thanks for following up while I’ve been travelling, Brian. I see you told DeSmogBlog too … about the scam, I mean, not my travels ;-)
    .
    There was no single identifiable thing that first tipped me off: it was a combination of my ignorance of the organisation, its comprehensive target audience and unlikely venue, along with offers of travel and visa assistance, with financial support excluding hotel booking (!), and lack of backward trail to organisers that smacked of inauthenticity. Then there was the phone number, incomplete address, and amateur website design that increased my suspicions, after which I contacted hotel manager, and he confirmed them!
    .
    I added PDFs and more notes here .

    Comment by inel — August 27, 2008 #

  6. Hi Mark,
    .
    Thanks for sending that link to problems encountered by some Kiwis when they visit Britain.
    .
    The most obvious connection is that both your example and mine involve the UK. In fact, I read here that:
    “Statistics show that the target banks and financial institutions for internet fraud are English speaking. The USA, United Kingdom and Australia are the primary victims.”

    Comment by inel — August 27, 2008 #

  7. this is the worst scam these fraudsters are doing and something need to be done to them

    Comment by Gachoka — August 28, 2008 #

  8. Great work Inel! I’ve pushed this out to everyone I know. Scamming bastards. I hope nobody gets sucked in.

    Comment by KGrandia — August 28, 2008 #

  9. In the solicitation they posted at DeSmogBlog, “Mrs. Osman” used a “walla.com” email, which is an Israeli Internet portal. Might explain the American English.

    My guess is these folks are unrelated to the typical climate denialists – they’re just con men out to steal money. Still, it seems like a lot of effort to steal what couldn’t be that many credit card numbers (how many people would really sign up?).

    My second guess is the con men have sent out notices of fake conferences in other academic and business fields so they can use the fake hotel website they’ve set up multiple times.

    I think the real hotel may have people showing up for all kinds of imaginary conferences, having thought they’d paid for rooms at the hotel.

    Comment by Brian Schmidt — August 28, 2008 #

  10. I’ve filed a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. We’ll see what happens.

    Comment by Brian Schmidt — August 28, 2008 #

  11. Thanks, Brian. Police in London can do little, it seems, until a crime is committed and reported. That means a potential attendee has to lose money and their credit card company has to report that to the police to trigger investigation. Meanwhile, I think this is an attempt at ID theft, because the WGGWCC Registration Form asks for passport number and flight details. My guess is that’s why they would target blogs outside the UK to get people to attend a conference in London—help with funding travel costs and offers of assistance with visas would attract ‘climate change victims’.

    Comment by inel — August 28, 2008 #

  12. Amazing i was when i received an WGGWCC invitation by my yahoo email.So,i decided to check in the WGGWCC webside and found this fraud warning.Thanks a lot

    [Response: thanks for letting me know that this is appearing in emails, Georges. It is also being placed under Classified Ads on portal sites such as IndiaList and I am waiting to hear back from Yahoo whether an email example would help their investigations. inel]

    Comment by Georges Ilunga — September 1, 2008 #

  13. Hello to all of you,
    unfortunatelly I have not seen all this staff before and applied for this Conference in London. I payed everything. Can you imagine? Have any idea what can be done regarding that?

    Comment by Lina — September 23, 2008 #

  14. Anyone who has already paid to attend the non-existent WGGWCC climate change conference in London should contact the police immediately.
    .
    Inform the police in your own country (Croatia, France, etc.) and your local police will contact the Metropolitan Police in London if there is suspicion that a crime has been committed.
    .
    Alternatively, and if you are already in London, you can contact the Westminster Police on one of the numbers listed. Paddington Green police station (Tel: 020 7402 1212) is the closest to The Hyde Park Hotel.

    Comment by inel — September 23, 2008 #

  15. Thanks Inel,

    maybe we should wait for couple of days to see whether they will refund the money back to us. Don’t you think so?

    Comment by Lina — September 23, 2008 #

  16. what really surprises me is that when i was sending them money i sent it on the name of the persons they were asking me to send. so if they went to collect the money they had to bring id with them, don’t you think so? otherwise, they couldn’t receive the money, wright? so i should have had real names and addresses…?

    Comment by Lina — September 23, 2008 #

  17. They’re at it again. Just got an email saying the conference is being held November 14-18, 2008, again at the Hyde Park Hotel.
    Thank goodness I tried to check it out and found your website instead!

    Comment by Sophie — October 2, 2008 #

  18. I am from India, tell me friends about authenticity of WGGWCC 08. I have submitted an abstract and about to submit our hotel reservation payment.

    regards

    Comment by Shobha — October 13, 2008 #

  19. I’m a VICTIM…
    have paid £459.00 for the hotel reservation in person cash to HSBC bank…
    will find them and kick their….

    Comment by Nazaneen — October 15, 2008 #

  20. Well, they “must have” held the 3rd one, since they’re now promoting the 4th. ;)

    “4th International Global Warming and Climate Change Conference & Industry Exposition (GWCC 09) will be held at The Hyde Park Hotel, London on January 23rd-27th, 2009.”

    Inconveniently for me, I attend *real* climate change conferences (will be in Poznan in a couple weeks for UNFCCC COP14) which seems to attract a lot of fake-conference spam to me. Inconveniently for *them*, I know which conferences are the real ones. ;)

    Comment by Dan — November 18, 2008 #

  21. Hi Nazaneen, hi all,

    you were not the only victim. I have payed for the hotel, for the security deposit, for the health insurance …etc. Total amount …1200 GBP.
    I am very very disappointed but unfortunately there is very little we can do. If any of you have any good idea on how could we get this things settled, let me know…

    Comment by Lina — November 23, 2008 #

  22. Hello Lina,
    I can only repeat what the police told me when I asked them for advice for people who write in to my blog. That is:

    “Anyone who has already paid to attend the non-existent WGGWCC climate change conference in London should contact the police immediately.
    .
    Inform the police in your own country (Croatia, France, etc.) and your local police will contact the Metropolitan Police in London if there is suspicion that a crime has been committed.
    .
    Alternatively, and if you are already in London, you can contact the Westminster Police on one of the numbers listed. Paddington Green police station (Tel: 020 7402 1212) is the closest to The Hyde Park Hotel.”

    P.S. Thanks to Dan for alerting us to the next version of this scam.

    Comment by inel — November 23, 2008 #

  23. Now the conference name is GWCCN 09 in the month of May 2009……IS IT ALSO A FRAUD OR REAL……..can anybody help me

    Comment by asha — March 28, 2009 #

  24. By the way, How could a conference website be under maintenance with the event so close at hand? And the hotel website says “future website of Hyde…” We also tracked the address (Google map). It’s nowhere in London.

    Comment by Linda — April 2, 2009 #


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