Conference Travel Scam - What to look for
 

I received a call from someone claiming to be from an agency telling me to book the required hotel for a conference where I was listed as a speaker on a web site. The person provided the name of the agency and indicated that the reservation could be canceled until two weeks before the conference three months out. Unfortunately, I booked it using my credit card. Then I became suspicious and immediately used the contact information I was given to cancel it. Then I checked with the hotel and they said that the reservation was not legit and that the same people had been making the same claim for others. I called the credit card and disputed it. I did get an email from the fake agency that they were submitting a refund request, which they didn't do of course. Then, I saw that this type of scam is widespread.Never give credit card information over the phone to someone who solicits information. I cancelled the card as well as disputing the charge.

Sort of restating the obvious?

There are a million variations on the same scam. They all seem sort of legit and they never are.

The scammers do their best to make it not obvious - they are selling what they don't own, like any other on-line travel agency. The differece is that they have no intention of booking anything, just collecting from the credit card. The sooner you realize what is going on, the better. Of course, the case described in the Frommer's link in my first post didn't realize that this was a scam until they were notified by the conference organizers much later. Conferences who post names of participants should also warn them about this scam at the same time.. .