Be aware of scams! invitation to attend International conferences

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

At least several NGO's in India have recently received via e-mail an

invitation to attend a youth conference (which mentions also

HIV/AIDS!) in the USA, and the invitation indicates as if all costs

of airfare, hotel will be covered. However, upon further follow-up,

the NGO's received more files with information including a

registration form that asks to send a moneygram to pay the

registration fee to assure a slot.

A number of factors have made me very suspicious of all of this

(including no official conference website; a google search for the

organization gives absolutely no result; lack of a conference

program, lack of phone number; pictures of hotels that show an

adjacent tropical beach while the state doesn't even border a sea,

and the fact that money needs to be sent via moneygram to a person

instead of sending money to an official organization).

While my direct e-mail to this organization is still awaiting a reply

(which is why I don't want to mention any specific names yet), in

meantime my suspicion is enough to send this advice to all NGO's is

to be VERY careful of scams!

Whenever in doubt about legitimacy of something, don't hesitate to

ask some real questions before proceeding. Don't fall in their traps.

Hope this helps,

Koen

USA

e-mail: <kkvanrompay@...>