BANGKOK, 19 September 2022: Can you make a living as a scammer? They seem to be scrapping the bottom of the barrel when they ask you to buy a Pacific Asia Travel Association mailing list. Have they fallen on hard times like the rest of us?
They are, if nothing else, a persistent bunch. The latest scam weaves a web around the mailing list of the PATA Annual Summit due to unfold in the UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah in October. The offer drops in our email boxes, promising 1,000 addresses for an event that will be lucky if it has 300 registered delegates. What happened to Nigeria’s letters offering a windfall from a state minister on the run?
But a few folks forwarded the messages asking if PATA knew the fraudsters had the association’s treasured mailing lists in their crosshairs.
It’s reassuring to know PATA has run a warning paragraph on its website for the last few months. It reads: “Please be aware that any emails claiming to sell our mailing lists are fraudulent. We advise you to disregard such messages to protect yourself from loss.”
It posts the warning on the website page https://www.pata.org/calendar/pata-annual-summit-2022
It’s also good to know PATA is up to speed on scams offering delegate mailing lists for several of its other events. It elaborates. “For instance, we have seen one email claiming the list of delegates for the recent PATA Destination Marketing Forum in Songkhla contained over 1,000 contacts. As you know from the press release that we distributed, the total number of delegates was 326,” PATA explained.
“It would be nearly impossible to stop people sending emails making these claims, but rest assured we take the protection of our data and the privacy of our members and event delegates very seriously.”
The PATA Annual Summit 2022 runs from 25 to 27 October 2022 in Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE.
In its privacy settings and rules posted on www.pata.org the association provides advice on recognising recognise phishing and scam, noting the fraudulent emails have a few common storylines.
Common storylines
Suspicious log-in attempts or activities recognised.
Claims of a problem with your online accounts or payments.
Requests for the receiver to confirm personal information.
The sender urgently needs your help.
What do phishing emails want?
Donations or your help in purchasing items (such as gift cards).
Usernames and passwords.
Bank account information, credit card number, or other personal financial details.
Answers to private questions that you might have used to guard your passwords.
How to avoid phishing
There are a few keys to help identify whether a phishing email is impersonating somebody from PATA.
Check that the email address was sent from –@PATA.org.
Ensure that the message you received fits in with the context of any prior communications.
The tips on avoiding scams conclude with a reassurance that PATA’s Secretariat and Executive Board members will never email you for personal financial assistance, even if they lost their credit cards and are stuck in an airport. That’s good to know.
For more on PATA internet security, visit https://www.pata.org/internet-security .
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