Re: China conference scam

["Lorenz, Eva" <evalorenz () UNC EDU>]

As someone who has several patents on biomedical compounds, I still get these invitations even though I left active 
research some 6 years ago. For some areas of research, I presume the motivation is IP theft from the laptops people 
bring to the conference - not every speaker will wipe their laptop before travelling to China. I have never followed 
through on these monthly emails that I receive, mostly because none of my collaborators are ever listed on the speaker 
list.  I remember a couple of years a heart surgeon that I had worked with was listed on a conference agenda and I 
thought about contacting him and asking him whether he was sure he wanted to present there since he also has several 
patents.


-          Eva

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Manuel 
Amaral
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 9:55 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] China conference scam

I too wonder what the motivation is.    I shared Andrea's email with our faculty and discovered that at least one of 
our faculty has received several similar emails in the past.   The email and "conference agenda" seem to target the 
faculty member's area of expertise and/or interest.

Manny


From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Shalla, 
Kevin
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 9:44 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] China conference scam

I wonder what the motivation was. Is it to start a conference from scratch, hoping to get participants based upon 
fictitious attendance of others, or is it to receive conference registration fees for a fictitious conference?

Kevin

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Di 
Fabio, Andrea
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 8:04 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: [SECURITY] China conference scam

I apologize for cross posting, but in the interest of information sharing and to ensure the safety of those who may be 
affected, we though it prudent to send this.

We received a call from our one of our professors earlier today.  She detailed how she received an email inviting her 
to speak at a conference in China.  She checked the site that accompanied the message and found that she knew several 
of the speakers listed.  The site looks like any other conference web site.  It is detailed and organized with care.  
The email was well written, both professionally and grammatically.

She went ahead and approached her department and received approval to be sponsored for the trip. She contacted "emma at 
wcmfcon . com" and was scheduled for a session.  During the process of getting everything setup and corresponding with 
"Emma" in China, she emailed some of those she knew that where scheduled to speak.  She found that they were not 
scheduled nor had any idea of the conference.  She decided to notify us to let us know and obviously declined to the 
speaking engagement.

See attached document for more details on this scam.