One Of The Problems Of Getting Your Events Noticed!
Plus advice for event organisers
How annoying is this?
The Women In Business Big Show 2021 is getting noticed. Sounds great and, of course, it is, but stuff comes at a bit of a price.
When you run an event that looks like lots of exhibitors and visitors will attend, it can also become an attractive proposition for crooks intent on phishing.
What they do is scrape (software that takes email addresses in bulk) email addresses from websites like LinkedIn and Facebook where people have showed they’re attending and then send them an email offering them what they think are attractive enough to convince people to click on a link or share their payment details.
The common offering is the attendee list. Next in line is a special deal with ‘Partner’ hotels nearby.
It’s fun to join in online with a community of like-minded people who are going to the same event, and you don’t have to miss out. The most obvious thing is to ignore the email, and I can’t say it really bothers me as I just forward them to report@phishing.gov.uk take no more notice.
If you really don’t want to get any emails, you can leave out the @ in the address on any websites, including social media sites (replace it with something else, like a bracket or other symbol) which means the website scrapers these scammers use find it harder to find your email.
The important thing is to not respond, and don’t share any details.
Always check the email address is legitimate and the critical thing is to check with the organiser if it’s asking for payment details or there’s a link to click.
And, be kind to the organiser of the event (like me) because they can’t do anything much about it and it means they’re doing well getting lots of people interested and getting the event notices.
#justsaying lol
Make sure your Privacy Policy is up to date and relevant to what you do.
Consider publishing advice on your event website advising exhibitors and attendees they could get Phishing emails and how they should treat them.
If you promote your exhibitors on your website, and include exhibitor emails, replace the @ with another symbol and this makes it harder for the scammers to ‘scrape’ the information.
Keep a simple line of communication, which means attendees know where they should get emails from and which are going to be genuine.
Understand there’s not that much you can do to stop it.
Advise your community on how to report any phishing emails. In the UK, they can forward the email to report@phishing.gov.uk
Above all, don’t let these crooks to spoil your event. Keep on promoting and enjoy!
Quick heads up that the Women In Business Big Show for 2021 is on 5th November, Longfield Academy, Kent.
This is a date change from 15th October and it looks like it’s going to be the final one!
It’s unavoidable and what has really amazed me is how understanding everyone has been. Our speakers just took it in their stride, no flinching or sucking through teeth and I’m so pleased to welcome them all for November.
Hey – it does look as though there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Who would have thought that when we had to cancel our event on 23rd March 2020, that it would be over a year before we were back. I had plans to be back the month after – who could have imagined what would follow?
We have the roadmap which is suggesting we can open back up fully without restrictions on 21st June 2021. With this timetable, I’ve set the first event for July 18th 2021 at Strood. The rest of the events at Paddock Wood and Longfield follow their previous timetable. Strood on the 3rd Sunday (19th July) and Paddock Wood (26th July) and Lognfield Academy on 1st August 2021.
This is the plan and I’m meeting with the Leigh Academies trust on 19th March to see what we can put in place.
Of course, I know you will understand that this is all dependent upon the progress of the Government’s Covid plan.
Fingers crossed and as soon as I can update further, I can be sure you will be the first to know.
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