High-profile guest speakers say they have no involvement in fraudulent Vancouver coronavirus conference
Guest speaker Mark Cuban has no idea how his name got on the list; another speaker died in November
An unlikely event dubbed the International Conference on Coronavirus and Rare Diseases scheduled for October in Vancouver has police and Canada's Anti-Fraud Centre concerned.
A website for the conference, where tickets range from $300-$700 US says the aim of the event is to bring together public health practitioners to discuss new findings.
The website paints a picture of an elaborate and very legitimate looking five-day event. It lists several high profile guests and carefully lays out how international attendees can get travel visas.
And where other conferences have been postponed or moved online due to COVID-19, the Blader Group LLC, listed as organizers of the conference, say it's full steam ahead.
Events would see 10 to 20 delegates assembled in a single hall and other delegates could join online.
In micro detail, and to seemingly maintain a degree of credibility, the event's location inside the Vancouver Convention Centre was provided.
"We did not receive any booking requests for an event by that name," said Jinny Wu, a spokesperson for the convention centre.
Non-existent guest speakers
On Wednesday morning, the website showed a list of speakers who do not exist, including Lydia Prime, a supposed professor at the University of Calgary.
The university said no one named Lydia Prime is associated with it.
By that evening, however, some notable names had replaced the fictitious speakers on the website.
Bernard Tyson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, a U.S. health-care organization headed the new list. Tyson, however, died unexpectedly in his sleep in November, 2019.
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban was also advertised as a speaker of note. CBC reached out to Cuban asking if he had any knowledge of the conference.
"I don't," Cuban said in an email. When asked to elaborate he said, "No clue about them."
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration principal deputy commissioner named Amy Abernethy was also listed as a speaker.
"I can confirm that Amy Abernathy was not contacted about this event and asked to speak," said Amanda Turney, an FDA spokesperson.
In one of the more extreme claims on the event's website, organizers wrote that the conference had official recognition by the Canada Border Services Agency but the organization told CBC in an email it had never heard of it.
CBC reached out to the event organizers via their Facebook page. A link to the Blader Group's website shows an office registered in the Marshall Islands — an island country in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Its website says the Blader Group is a team of finance industry experts.
Conference cancelled
Shortly after the request for comment, we were sent a Facebook message saying the event was cancelled. A few hours after that, the conference's website was taken down.
CBC also reached out to Eventbrite, a website where the tickets were available for sale. The site allows anyone to create an event through its platform, as long as they abide by its community guidelines.
"Upon review of this event, we determined it to be in violation and have taken it off our platform," said a statement from Eventbrite.
The Blader Group was also using Eventbrite to sell tickets for five other upcoming events, which have also been taken down.
Other non-existent conferences
Canada's Anti-Fraud Centre says seven individuals filed complaints after being scammed for non-existent conferences between January 2019 and May 2020.
"These are scripted individuals. It's not their first kick at the can. They know what they are doing," said Jeff Thomson, a senior RCMP intelligence analyst with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Thomson said the centre uses a disruption program to block or shut down fraudulent sites, but there is usually another fake event up and running soon after. He says people should use caution before paying to attend a conference.
Vancouver police said they are not aware of the scam — but suggest anyone who may have been a victim to report it immediately.
"Crimes like this need to be investigated and we always recommend people contact their local police for such scams," said Sgt. Aaron Roed, a media relations officer with the VPD.
Since the beginning of March, there have been 2,770 reports of COVID-19 fraud in Canada, according to The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, involving 1,729 victims.
Anyone who has been a victim of fraud is urged to reach out to the centre.
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