How to Avoid Getting Scammed in Events

Getting scammed one way or another isn’t an uncommon occurrence. If you ask family members, friends, and acquaintances, several have stories of getting scammed at one time or at least being made to believe something was true, only to find out it wasn’t. What’s worse is that these scammers can appear very real and be very persistent that you find yourself believing them.

Even if it may seem unlikely, getting scammed in events is something that has already happened to several people—whether they are the ones attending an event (attendees and speakers), hiring event services (clients), or providing event services (event planners, vendors). Whether you are the one handling events or are the one engaging in someone’s event services, you must be careful and exercise caution to avoid getting scammed.

How to Avoid Getting Scammed in Events If You are Participating or Attending an Event

Scams in Concerts and Other Artist Events

Concert ticketing scams are some of the most popular scams out there. Enthusiastic fans who can’t wait to see their beloved artist perform live are often the most susceptible to scams. The more popular the artist, the more rampant the cons, as concert venues can only hold a certain number of spectators.

Evil people will take advantage of the situation to earn a pretty penny. You’ll find scammers pretending to sell tickets on websites and social media. They’ll pretend to have bought a ticket and, at the last minute, be unable to go. Sometimes, they’ll show a picture of the ticket, too! Be careful—those could just be Photoshopped.

Unfortunately, several people, desperate to get a ticket, will believe anything. They’ll pay for the ticket, trusting in the scammer’s word that the ticket will be sent to them or that they’ll meet up on the day of the concert to get it. And when concert day comes, imagine the shock and disappointment to learn there was never a ticket in the first place. Gone is the money they paid and access to the concert.

Avoid getting scammed in concert events by only buying tickets from legitimate sources. Avoid those who are re-selling tickets no matter how nice or honest they seem, unless you have a friend or acquaintance who can vouch for the original ticket seller.

If you are late to buying a ticket and learn that they are already sold out, contact the organiser first instead of shouting out into the social media void where a lot of potential scammers lurk. The concert organiser will likely have a solution or an answer to your questions.

Scams in Conferences, Seminars, and Other MICE Events

Concertgoers are not the only ones getting scammed. Other events may be scams, including MICE events.

If You Are An Attendee:

Sometimes, you may see an event that seems like the real deal. You’ll see a complete lineup of speakers, presenters, organisers, and exhibitors. Everything looks legitimate—from the posters they release on social media to their teaser videos. Except, as the event draws near, and you have a question or two, the event planner never responds to your inquiries, and they haven’t updated their page for a few weeks. Gut feeling tells you something is wrong. Unfortunately, you have already paid for the event and your travel and lodgings.

What can you do to avoid such a scenario?

Verify Your Event Source

Before you even register for an event, check your source. Where did you find out about the event? Was it a legitimate site where the event planner provided detailed information, such as the location of an event, the speakers, the sponsors—even going so far as to link back to their sites and testimonials? Or did you hear it from a more vague channel, where it is hard to check for the legitimacy of things, such as a Facebook group or an instant messenger chat room?

Sometimes, events will appear so real because of how they are presented. And once the organiser takes your money for registration, you’ll never hear from them again. That’s because there is really no such event in the first place. The speakers and venue don’t even know they are booked for such an event.

Double and Triple Check the Event Flyer

Another strong indicator of whether or not an event is a scam is the event flyer. While it is now easy to produce professional-looking flyers and posters thanks to graphic design websites like Visme and Canva, you can still tell how some events are scams because their flyers make it pretty obvious. Scammers won’t usually spend time and money to produce “perfect” flyers. Unless they’re hatching up an elaborate scheme, they’ll usually go with what is quick and easy to do because they’re looking for ways to make money fast.

Professional events will not have five to eight different fonts or various images (with the Shutterstock logo on it because they haven’t purchased it either). Scam events, on the other hand, tend to have so many things going on in the poster. They also tend to have a lot more spelling and grammatical errors.

Check the Registration Process

Legitimate events have a thorough payment process, especially those using sites known for handling financial transactions (think PayPal, Wise, Eventbrite, etc.). Read the fine print and terms and conditions for buying, refunding, and transferring tickets, as they are likely to have them too.

An events registration process is critical because legitimate business-related payment methods have buyer protection and various safeguards in place. Scams are rampant, and they want to protect you against fraud. Some registration processes are so long, people would rather find quick-fix solutions, such as paying through sketch third-party apps or asking family and friends for favours. However, it’s still better to go through the whole process, even if it takes time, rather than circumventing safeguards for the sake of speed. Remember, your privacy and protection matter the most in the end.

Professional business sites also usually give you a reference number, so you have something to trace your transaction if you run into any problems in the future.

If You Are An Event Speaker:

Unfortunately, speakers (and even sponsors and exhibitors) can get scammed too. You may have received an invitation to be a speaker, guest, or panellist at a seemingly legitimate event. Or the event did happen, but it’s been a few months, and they still aren’t paying you as they promised to.

Everything you agreed on with the event planner must be clear. If you expect payment for your talk, be upfront about it. If the event planner inviting you doesn’t offer you a contract, provide one on your own with a terms and conditions sheet. It may seem over the top, but professional event planners won’t take offence because they know you want to be careful, just as they are also trying to be careful.

If you have been promised additional services (e.g. they will pay for your plane ticket, hire a car to transport you from the airport or hotel or wherever you’re staying, or will pay for your hotel accommodations during the entire event), make sure those are covered in your contract.

How To Avoid Getting Scammed in Events If You Are a Client Hiring Vendors or Event Services

At Eventuallyz, we know how important events are—for the birthday celebrant, for the graduate embarking on a new journey, for the couple getting married or celebrating their 50th anniversary, for the company having its first national conference. No matter who you are or what kind of event you have, it’s a significant occasion for you. For this reason, we condone such acts where event planners or vendors attempt to scam their clients.

How can you avoid falling prey to such schemes? Here are some tips that might help:

Do Your Research

The event planner or vendor you’re considering may have a snazzy event website and a Facebook page full of five stars, but anyone can fake those things. If you are part of wedding groups or other online communities, you can ask for a legitimacy check in case someone has previously hired a particular event service or vendor. Do a thorough Google search to see where people might have mentioned them and how it was to work with them.

Pay Attention to the Little Details

Sometimes it’s in the details that you can sense someone scamming you. Keep looking for those telltale signs, such as spelling mistakes and bad grammar. Check their email addresses and websites. Usually, legitimate event services will use an email tied to their company name (e.g. info[@]eventuallyz.com) and not just a random email address. Or if they use a generic email service provider (like Gmail or Yahoo), but their address is a weird or unintelligible mix of letters and numbers, it could be a warning sign.

Check also what they are offering you. If it sounds too good to be true, you are likely dealing with someone who doesn’t know what they are doing, or you are being scammed.

Have a Signed Copy of Everything You Agreed On

Sometimes, event services won’t scam you outright, but they’ll try to cut corners when servicing you. It’s best to have a written contract about everything you agreed on, from the number of people who will help you, to what kinds of services they will provide. Discuss everything, and we mean EVERYTHING. Some clients have fallen prey to event planners and vendors who give basic services, which are sorely lacking, and then charge for all the other itty bitty details they know your event can’t do without.

Check the terms and conditions thoroughly, especially concerning payments and other money-related matters. Sometimes, you need to give a downpayment before your actual event date. For other vendors, however, you can negotiate to pay the balance after the event (especially for services with a desired output, like tech). Delaying payment till the event is over lets you check the quality first, if it is as promised, and will give you leverage if they do not deliver what they said they would.

Make sure you also review the conditions for postponing or cancelling an event. Some event venues will only allow you to cancel if you pay a fine, and you probably won’t get your downpayment back.

How To Avoid Getting Scammed in Events If You Are An Event Planner or Event Vendor

Event planners and vendors are also vulnerable to scams from “clients” looking for ways to make easy money. For example, someone could contact you pretending to be a client. They’ll hire you and ask you to handle all aspects of the event. They’ll even ask you to pay a vendor up-front, promising to include its payment in their deposit. A few days later, you try to contact them to sign a contract, but you can’t get in touch with them. Weeks later, you realise it was all a setup. You end up losing the money you paid to the vendor, your potential “client”, and the deposit they promised you.

Here are some tips so you can avoid getting scammed by clients:

Do a Background Check on Your Clients

Just because someone seems to have a decent photo on their social media profile does not mean they are instantly credible. If you can, learn all there is to know about your clients. Ask them who they have worked with before (if any), and contact those vendors if you can. Check for phishing giveaways, such as spelling mistakes, bad grammar, event names, and other details that seem off.

Be on Alert When You Get to the Venue on the Event Date

In one horror story we heard, a makeup artist almost got scammed into providing a bride’s makeup artist for free.

In the world of weddings and social events, some makeup artists offer to do a trial run of their makeup on the bride or debutante to see if she likes the look on herself. It’s a way to establish rapport with potential clients so they can work well together on the actual event date.

This case, however, was different. A popular makeup artist received a booking for a trial run from a bride who wanted to try on their makeup before the actual event date. The artist agreed and arrived at the place on the set date but noticed something was off. Women dressed in bridesmaid clothes were milling around. Family members were present, dressed to the nines. In trial runs, it is usually just the bride and a trusted friend or family member. There were even photographers and videographers taking shots of the bride, confirming the makeup artist’s worst fear—that the bride had booked them not just for a trial, but to try to get away with having her makeup done for free during her actual wedding.

What to Do If You Are Ghosted by An Event Planner and a Vendor

While we hope this never happens to you, here are some steps you can take if you think you are being ghosted or have been ghosted by an event planner or event vendor:

If You Are Ghosted a Few Days Before Your Event

Try All Means to Contact Your Planner and Vendors

Email them, message them via text and other chat apps if they have it, call them, go to their office. Sometimes, people may have a legitimate reason for going off the grid, such as the coordinator of an event venue who got into a car accident the night before an event. She did turn over the event details to her second-in-command, but she was unreachable for a few hours.

Nevertheless, if a few days have passed, and you still can’t contact them, you should start getting a little concerned.

Reach Out to Others for Help

There’s no shame in getting scammed. You can reach out to your contacts or friends and explain the situation.

If your event is your wedding, you can ask friends to help coordinate on behalf of the event planner who went rogue. You can also explain your situation to the attendees. Order food trays, as those are cheaper than getting another caterer. You can also make it more of a community event by organising a potluck and asking attendees to bring food.

If you are having a MICE event, keep the company heads up to date as they may have contacts who can pull some strings or help you in some way. Be ready to present your suggestion about what to do as they will likely ask you for your recommendation.

Contact Their Last Clients

If your event planner or vendor was referred to you by a friend, get in touch with that friend and ask them for help. If the event planner or vendor has a Facebook page, you’ll see some of their past clients on their page. Reach out to them as they may still have contact with the vendor or supplier.

Sometimes, it is helpful to be part of online communities with event planners, vendors, and clients. Someone somewhere may have the information you need.

If You Are Ghosted on the Day of the Event

Decide if you will cancel the event or push forward. In some cases, it will cost more to cancel, so you might as well push through.

If you decide to push through with your event, talk to your remaining suppliers, as they may be able to help you. It’s hard to push through with the bare bones of what was supposed to be a grand event, but this is where flexibility comes in. You may be able to do without some things you were hoping to have. Despite the undesirable situation, remember to give your guests or attendees an excellent experience no matter what.

If you decide to cancel your event, be sure to let your guests and other suppliers know. The challenging thing about cancelling on the day of your event is there is a chance you might overlook telling someone, and they might get upset to find out they went all the way for nothing.

Over-communicate—call if you have to, rather than having to deal with people who come expecting the event to push through. Ask some friends to help you communicate to guests about your cancelled wedding if you can’t do it yourself because your hands are full.

If you have event staff for a conference or other type of event, have them contact the attendees, speakers, sponsors, and other people by sending emails and messages. Post on your Facebook event page (and website) about the cancellation. Provide options for returning and refunding tickets sold (you should have a plan for this even as you are planning for your event as a safeguard in case anything goes wrong).

As things die down and you try to cut through your losses or find answers, you may be willing to file a lawsuit against the event planner or vendor that scammed you. This is why contracts and other documentation, such as emails, texts, and the like are important. Know, however, that this will take a lot of time and finances, so it should be something you think about carefully first before you do it. As much as possible, get advice also from a trusted lawyer who can advise you whether or not pushing for a lawsuit is something worth your time and effort.