FTC’s New Impersonation Rule Means to Stop Scammers

Members of the PCMA Catalyst Community share how their organizations deal with companies posing as authorized partners of their events — and how the ‘Government and Business Impersonation Rule’ can help.

Author: Convene Editors       

The Federal Trade Commission’s rule on government and business impersonation went into effect April 1, which targets among other things, scams aimed at the business events industry.

PCMA’s Catalyst community offers members a platform to ask each other questions, share ideas, or, as the website says, “communicate and collaborate.” Here’s a sampling from a recent Catalyst discussion.

“Our exhibitors and sponsors are being inundated by companies reaching out to sell attendee lists and hotel blocks,” Jennifer A. Millet, vice president of event strategy and partnerships at ARMA International, told the PCMA Catalyst Community. “It’s a problem every year, but this year they are getting spammed several times a day. We don’t make our contact list public, and I send several reminders to my exhibitors and sponsors of who our authorized partners are. Is anyone doing anything to stop these scammers? Thank you!”


We have a spreadsheet to track poachers and scammers every year. I also send a cease-and-desist letter for additional support. You also can report fraud to the Federal Trade Commission, as they have been working on cracking down on this issue. They have initiated a new impersonation rule, the “Government and Business Impersonation Rule,” which targets business events industry hotel reservation scams and attendee list sale scams.

— Zandria Hardman, CMP, Assistant Director, Hotel, Registration, & Travel Services, Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)


It’s not just you and it’s not recent. This issue has existed for years, and the events industry has been lobbying about it for several years. I personally visited legislators several times during the International Association of Exhibitions & Events (IAEE) Exhibition Days on the Hill to advocate about this. The Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA) was formed a few years ago to provide a full-time legislative action government affairs program based in Washington, D.C., to build the relationships necessary to yield effective advocacy in the events industry. The ECA represents a coalition that includes the following industry organizations: PCMA, IAEE, Exhibition Services &Contractors Association (ESCA), Experiential Designers and Producers Association (EDPA), International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM), Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO), Trade Show Labor Alliance, ICCA, and the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI).

[Re:] the “Government and Business Impersonation Rule” that went into effect April 1, 2024: We have the ECA to thank for this rule and that action will finally be taken to stop these scammers.

I am no longer sending the cease-and-desist letter now that this rule is in place. [Those letters] never did any good — if you Google or research the email addresses, the offers are not coming from an actual business.

I have now started responding (I average about 200 of these emails per year!) with something to the effect of: “I’m not interested, this is a fraudulent offer, and I will be reporting you to the FTC!”

— Jane Dahlroth, Senior Director of Meetings and Events, American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics


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