There is a possibility that you may receive e-mails from companies trying to sell fake attendee data lists while preparing to participate in our show.
Unfortunately, there is not much IFA can do to stop these companies from contacting you.
Firstly, IFA does not share or sell its full attendee list with third parties.
You can easily spot these scam companies by examining their domains. If there is no official website associated with the email address domain, that is the first clue. Next, do a WHOIS lookup on their domain to see who it is registered by and when it was registered. If it was registered within the last 3-6 months, it is likely a scam. If they hide their admin or technical contacts (domain registrars allow this), that is also a good indication.
What these companies do is register a domain just to create an email address. This is cheap and easy to do and can be discarded once it becomes ineffective or investigated.
They then look at an event's website to see which companies are attending; most events have a floor plan or directory. While this normally only gives the company name, they are able to use easily available tools and services to find out what the contact email addresses might be from the web and publicly available data.
They then create a list of random contacts but also research a small set of “likely attendees.” They use this small set to try and convince prospective buyers of the legitimacy of the full list.
This unfortunate scam industry affects all event companies, not just IFA. We can only advise our customers to disregard these types of approaches and discard them immediately.
Most importantly, IFA has not and will never share or sell its participant lists without the actual consent of the individuals themselves.
Warm regards,
IFA Management GmbH