Jeweller - August 2022

News
Jewellery fair scammers back in business as world exits pandemic
Jeweller decided to engage with one of the
scammers offering the attendee list for the
International Jewellery Fair. We asked for the
details of this list and the cost.
We were supposedly communicating with Henry
Johnston, a database and list expert from
an international research company based in
Pennsylvania, USA. Even though our email replies
were being sent during Australian business hours,
they were being quickly answered although it was
meant to be 3am in the US.
Jewellery show scammers are back in force as the
world ‘reopens’ after the global pandemic.
The scams – which were increasingly prevalent
before COVID forced the closure of most
international trade shows all around the world
– are very simple.
These scams tends to target three things: attendee
lists, fair directories and hotel reservations.
Attendee lists
This is the most common scam and involves
exhibitors being contacted by people who claim to
have an upcoming show’s attendee list. For a price,
you buy complete contact details of every visitor -
before they even attend the event!
The scammers will often use the show name,
logo and/or show organiser’s name in the
email signature.
Jeweller is aware of a number of emails
currently circulating stating, “We are offering
you the attendees contacts list of IJF
International Jewellery Fair 2022: Are you
interested to purchase?”
The email goes on to list attendee categories
including jewellery retailer, department store buyer,
watch or clock retailer, duty free retailer, jewellery
manufacturer and so on.
Fair directories
This scam entails exhibitors receiving an email
to update their company information in the
‘International Fairs Directory’, or another name
similar to the name of the exhibition they are
scheduled to attend.
These emails appear at a time when suppliers
are focusing on the trade show’s planning.
A few years ago, a number of Australian jewellery
suppliers got caught by this scam when they found
themselves agreeing to pay €1,212 ($AU1,796) to
a company each year for three years for the
‘privilege’ of advertising in a directory, which had
no connection to any trade show.
Hotel reservations
This scam has not been as prominent in the
Australian jewellery industry; however, again it’s
very simple: exhibitors are offered ‘too good to
refuse’ hotel deals only to discover they booked
rooms through a third-party room broker.
People arrive at a hotel only to find that no booking
exists and there is no recourse for the payment
of rooms. These ‘brokers’ falsely imply they are
affiliated with show management and secure
deposits and/or full prepayment fraudulently.
Gary Fitz-Roy, managing director Expertise Events
said that not only does he get calls every year from
jewellery exhibitors about the attendee list being
sold, he said his own business gets offers to buy
the attendee list of his own show!
“It’s an old scam and no one running it is very
sophisticated. The scammers copy the exhibitors
list contact details from our website, as well as our
details as the fair organiser, and then try to sell us
an attendee list that they don’t have.
“In fact, some years ago, when we launched
a new exhibition in another industry, the
scammers were trying to sell the attendee list
of a show that had never taken place. It was the
first event,” Fitz-Roy said.
He advises exhibitors to ignore these emails:
“Suppliers and exhibitors and, more importantly,
visitors [retail buyers] need to be assured that
Expertise Events does not sell our database, the
scammers have no access to it.
“It’s simply a fraud, just another internet scam.”
Investigation
This publication receives many emails attempting
the attendee list scam, and a quick search of the
email address and/or adding the URL address of
the, so called, list broker will quickly expose the
scam. That is, while the email address can be, say,
john.smith@exhibitorlists.com, there will be no
website for the business Exhibitorlists.
We asked Johnston to call our office to discuss
the details. We were told the attendee list for a
show that had not taken place included the names,
addresses, phone numbers and email addresses
of 15,237 jewellery buyers scheduled to attend the
Sydney trade fair.
When the number of buyers was queried, the man –
who revealed he was an Indian national - confirmed
that the figure was correct. He also confirmed he
was located in Pennsylvania, the address on the
company’s website, and explained that “he is on call
to answer questions, even at 3am in the morning!”
At this point, we asked if he could tell us how many
jewellery stores there are in Australia according to
his “extensive database of jewellery buyers”.
He said he could provide that figure but first, he had
to “interrogate the database” at which point there
was fast and seemingly loudly exaggerated typing
(banging) on a keyboard to signify search queries.
The answer came back “more than 40,000”.
Jeweller confirmed the question to Johnston and
he replied, “Yes, that’s correct, there are more than
40,000 independent jewellery stores in Australia.
And we have all their contact details.”
For the record, the total number of jewellery stores
in Australia, including chain stores such as Michael
Hill, Prouds, and so on, is fewer than 3,000!
Following further discussion - including a great
many more outrageous claims - we agreed to buy
the list.
We were presented with an invoice for $US500
listing the payment details for a National Australia
Bank account; however; the payment had to
be made via a specific Western Union office in
Sunshine, a western suburb of Melbourne.
Needless to say, the payment was never made,
even though we assured Mr Johnston that it had.
Fitz-Roy said the only way to deal with
scammers is not to reply. “It happens on all
of our shows and happens to other event
organisers all around the world.
“Expertise Events has the largest database of
jewellery retailers and buyers by far. We would
never sell, rent, or give away our lists.”
24 | August 2022