Event organiser of Seafood Expo Asia warns of scammers pretending to be associated with its shows

Source: Seafood Expo Asia website.

Organisers of Seafood Expo Asia are warning potential exhibitors of scammers approaching them for various exhibition-related projects such as paid directory listings. Victims may be locked into an automatically-renewed three-year contract for US$1,700 or more annually, they said.

Diversified Business Communications said that companies may claim to be associated with its events, which include Seafood Expo Asia and SPAR Japan, and offer to list an exhibitor in an exhibitor directory or a business guide, for example FAIRGuide, Expo-Guide, Construct Data Verlag, World Business Directory or World Business Guide. Other services may include travel arrangements and hotel rooms. 

The companies behind such projects are not associated in any fashion with Diversified Business Communications or any of our trade show events, the event organiser said online, providing an example of what the fraudulent solicitation can look like. "If you have participated in any of our exhibitions in previous years, or are due to participate in any of our events this year you are likely to be targeted," Diversified Business Communications stated on a web page warning of the scams. "Most of these companies are not official vendors for the expo and some are from non-existent companies."

The company went on to recommend contacts for unsolicited communications from possible scammers for US and EU businesses, but did not list any organisations for the Asia Pacific region. In cases such as these making a police report or going to a cyber security government agency within the country would be likely avenues to pursue.

Seafood Expo Asia, formerly the Asian Seafood Exposition, will return to Hong Kong from 6 to 8 September 2016. Over three days, seafood buyers can connect with exhibitors offering a variety of live, fresh, frozen and value-added seafood products and seafood-related services and equipment.

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Refer to the official list of vendors for Seafood Expo Asia 

Check with Diversified Business Communications' customer service department about unofficial vendors at: +1 207 842 5504 or email customerservice at divcom.com.

Read the Suroor Asia blog post about a possible scam event site