Predatory meetings and conferences
Predatory meetings are organized by companies that have no interest in science but are just after your money. These companies, primarily located in India, make money from the registration fee and the hotel packages they sell. They generate a conference website and put names of speakers on their website, which will make them look trustworthy. However, most of these speakers have not agreed to speak at these conferences, but their photos and biosketches are posted on the site anyway. Once you arrive at the meeting, the promised reputable speakers are not there, the interesting sessions announced on the website are not taking place, there are few conference attendants, and the overall organization is terrible. In some cases, once you arrive, you find out that there is no conference at all and no hotel has been booked, leaving you stranded. Especially inexperienced researchers fall prey to these scams. Because predatory meetings currently outnumber legitimate scientific meetings, you need to think and check before registering. Unfortunately, Beall's list of Predatory Conferences has been discontinued (he was sued by one of the predatory conference organizers, not sure if that is the reason), and I have not found a replacement list yet. So below is a list of points to check.How can you tell a predatory meeting from a legitimate one?
- The topic of the conference you are invited to has little to do with your expertise
- The website of the meeting lacks a contact email, telephone number, or address. Or if an email address is posted it is a free email account (yahoo, gmail, etc.)
- The meeting is not announced on the website of the professional society in your field
- The meeting is not organized by a well-known institute or professional society
- It is difficult to find the actual location of the conference on the website
- When you click on sample abstracts, they have nothing to do with the conference topic
- You received an invitation to be a speaker at the conference just weeks or a few months before the convention
- The session topics appear to be too generic or not relevant to the conference
- The website's wording appears AI generated, generic, or irrelevant
- You and your colleagues have not been to previous meetings by this organization before
- They promise publication of your manuscript
- Multiple conferences on entirely unrelated topics are organized at the same time at the same place?
- If review or committee members are named on the website, check whether these people are actually working in your field
- If your abstract is accepted quickly after submission (within hours or days) no committee is actually reviewing the abstracts. You can check the review process by submitting a bogus abstract, something Christoph Bartneck did for a nuclear physics meeting, and his abstract was accepted within 3 hours…
(Image by PeakPx)
Companies that -in my personal opinion*- organize predatory meetings:
- ACME meetings
- Albedo Meetings
- Allied Academies - see a.o. here for a report on their fraudulent meetings
- Archives of Applied Medicine -they organize `Global conferences` on every subject -their website: conferences.aoamj.org
- Auragen Group
- Axiom Meetings
- Biocore Conferences
- BIT Congress - see some of the reviews on trustpilot
- BIT Life Sciences
- Clerisy Conferences
- Coalesce Research Group / Coalesce Conferences
- Conference Era (a.o. WCBBS)
- Conference Series - see some of the reviews on trustpilot
- EuroSciCon
- Event Series
- Gavin Conferences
- Global Summits / Global Summits Institute - see also Top100Doc in predatory award organizations
- (The) Iconic Meetings
- Innovinc International
- Inovine Conferences
- International Institute of Engineers and Doctors (or IIERD Forum)
- International Organization of Educators and Researchers Inc (IOER)
- International Society for Engineers and Researchers (ISER)
- Life Science Events
- Longdom Conferences - read Steffi Friedrichs's comment on ResearchGate
- Magnus Group
- Meetings International
- Moment Era (or MomentEra)
- mScholar Conferences
- OLC International
- OMICS International,from the same organizers as Pulsus group
- Outlook Conferences
- Pride Conferences
- PSC Conference
- Pulsus Group, from the same organizers as OMICS International
- Scholars Conferences / Scholars International
- Scientific Cognizance
- Scientific Federation
- Scientific Meditech
- Scientific Serve
- Scientific Tree Group
- Sciinov Group
- Scisynopsis Conferences
- STAR Conferences
- Synergia Summits
- Times Scientific Group
- United Scientific Group - One of the founders, Sudhakar Yakkanti, is mostly known for scientific misconduct. The other, Kenneth Blum, is mostly known as a quack.
- WASET
- World Education Day (at: worldeduday.org)
- World Research Forum for Engineers and Researchers (WRFER)
- Xpert Meetings
i have just been to a PULSUS conference meeting in Dubai. I knew the minute i walked in that it is a predetory conferene.
Allied Academies ( http://www.alliedacademies.org ) – I have registered for a convention by Allied Academies in 2023. When I registered, the representative promised a refund in case of a change in the convention or any other problem. They changed the dates a short time before the convention. When I asked for a refund, they refused. I hope you will not have the same experience as I did.
I will add that the website for one of the listed predatory conference organizers, Coalesce Conferences, has been blocked by my university as a phishing website, which I discovered when I tried to go to the conference website page to see how many of the red flags they checked off.
What about Pride conference? Are they predatory?
I’m wondering about the same company. Checked the organizing committee, seemed adequate for Oncology-2022 conference that I am invited to. anybody has any experience with Pride Conference Organizer? Thank you!
It’s clearly fake. If you see some big names on the organizing committee, they are unlikely to be aware that their name is being used this way. The prestigious London address is fake too (no such company is registered at that address).
One type of Coalesce Conference got my LinkedIn account in order to pursue me to enjoy the meeting. Predatory organizers have gone much far as criminal in Brazil. That’s shamed.
Obs.: I am Brazilian, so the comparison is realistic, not xenophobic.
Thank you for sharing this information! I was looking for a conference from Coalesce Research Group / Coalesce Conferences and it looked weird. I found it on this search site for conferences: https://10times.com/medical-pharma which looks like filled with these kinds of fake events.
All the Conferences when appears the name Baha Ahmet YILMAZ are fakes and predatory
I registered to a Coalescence Group wbinar. It hasn’t yet happened. Anyone knows if I will get refunded if I cancel my assistance? It says it has to be three days prior to the webinar and it is but at this point I don’t trust anything.
Did you get a refund?
I have registered with a conference named “2nd International Conference on Occupational Health and Public Safety” organized by Frigate Conferences Limited. Extremely poor coordination. It is very likely a scram and fake confetence. Avoid any conference/meeting organized by Frigate Conferences by all keans
Auragen group is a recent spammer and predatory company started in Hyderabad. If you are free call at +91 9989 661 232., they are ready to initiate their scam over phone itself, by the name called Mr. Sai Kiran Olipilli, who is just a graduate and spamming the researchers.
#Fake Auragen #spammer Auragen # predatory Auragen
https://www.auragengroup.com/
Magnus Group is a Profit Organisation based in Hyderabad, India. Ranjith Kumar is managing Director of Magnus Group. you can find its location in google (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Magnus+Group/@17.427922,78.450011,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x3352021be53e22d6?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwigw9D72e7lAhURknAKHcUQDr4Q_BIwE3oECBAQCA).
Its completely a fake Organisation sending invitations with fake names. You will never see the person who contacted you in email at onsite, you will find only the following persons at every conference Jyothi, Sravya, Navya, Hari Prasad, Laxmi, Alekya.
MG is the Dark Side of Predatory Conferences, Decreasing the quality of Scientific Events
My name is smith and i received an irrelevant invitation to my research, from OLC International to join a conference, when i submitted a fake abstract it is accepted with in half an hour and received an email from them to pay the registration fee, how the fuckers are spamming researchers you can analyze now, we can contact them at +91 7799901270.
which is from India i hope, on what basis the fake abstract has been accepted still i wonder.
Fake organization, Spammer OLC International, Predatory OLC International
https://www.olcinternational.com/
I found this a while ago – an unintentionally useful compendium of predatory conference companies. According to the comments in the blog, of people who have been contacted by these events, everything seems to indicate that they are using scientists as useful idiots for them to make money in the organization of bad quality events to defraud people. Why researcher need to pay a minimal fee if they organize only webinars? Its unethical, how a just graduated person can make researchers fools, I am wondering now, I am going to file a case on this. Does the refund saves their organization from predatory, Hilarious answer given by #spamauragen, this indicates their fake organization standards. I am sure #scamauragen will face a law suit soon to stop deceptive practices. Don’t make the costly mistake of being fooled by fake conference organizers.
Beware of Auragen scam. Dubious, fake or eventually predatory Conferences, its just another version of #OMICSpredatory, #Scientificfederationscam
since recently I’ve gotten E-Mail-invitation for nanotechnology event, but actually I am an anthropologist and they referred my paper which is 12 years back. So I treated it as spam and I infer this must be a mass mailing to people whom they have not bothered to assess, there is nothing in the website which looks like predatory website absolutely.
Just to be clear: Auragen Group is not a serious organization, it certainly belong to the “predatory” category.
Auragengroupscam Predatory auragen group
i have received an invitation from surgery where the website looks awful and no speaker details nothing, when i asked for the attendees list in return they are asking me to pay registration fee as they do not have much time for the event.
Auragen is not a serious organization, my university already blocked their emails
https://www.auragengroup.com/surgtech-2022/
can anyone believe this fraud and scam? by observing recent blogs about this Auragen Indian company scam i can not go further for scamming webinars, please be aware everyone- Auragengroupfake, auragengroupspam, auragengrouppredatory
I received an invitation to be a plenary speaker at the European Public Health Webinar 2022 https://publichealth.scientificmeditech.com/ in March this year. It came on the basis of a recent publication in the very journal. However, it is organised by scientificmeditech and I just can’t seem to find reassuring information about this conference in my searches.
I got an invite just like that, but when I checked online, there was no hint of anything shady going on. So it’s probably all good. Have you found out anything fishy about it?
Recently i have attended Auragen Nanotechnology Webinar, the worst virtual meeting that i attend in my life time., with very few people and organizers are unable to show their faces during the virtual meeting if they are genuine. i was not aware of this scam and paid 249 USD for this, soon i will give a complaint in consumer protection office to receive back my amount.
Later the meeting i have seen many news in the internet about this fake organization Auragen., dont attend these type of fake events, Auragen group is completely bogus and predatory organization.
Thank you, this page is helpful.
But the Auragen predatory is giving spam and useless comments for each and every post with the author name, so kindly EV science consultant, please remove them and make the researchers read the original comments by the attendees and aware of their fraud.
Auragenspam, Auragenconferencespredatory, Auragenconferences, auragenwebinars, auragenscam
Hello EV Scientific Consultant,
We strictly want you to understand that there are competing companies who say we are fake and our organization is fake, they also follow the same procedures to organize conferences, they use author names and put comments not relevant to us, The names of the authors mentioned here are the first time we see their names and we confidently assure you that we have no prior collaboration with them and they have not used our services, we have given opportunities to so many speakers who are really not able to attend the conferences
Here, few people with fake author names ask our company why we charge, but even they do the same to arrange the lectures
There are so many association conferences that charge a small fee to attend events, they need to understand that attending a conference is completely a speaker’s right, if they don’t like the services, they will email us directly but they won’t waste their precious time here putting comments and checking again and again
If EV Science Consultant is a genuine website, please put appropriate verification to authenticate people commenting here
It’s our organization reputation, if you don’t remove comments from those who spread negative about our organization, we will definitely take legal action.
Thank you
after reading all the comments being a researcher….
what a sarcastic post from predatory organization, who cares if the bogus organization takes legal action, rather than refunding the disappointed researchers close the bogus and spam company, you are earning money by spamming researchers, let the world knows about auragen predatory webinars. Take legal actions on all the bloggers if you have courage. OMICS has paid billion dollar law suit, be ready for it as you are responding to each researcher post and commenting as researchers are fake.
it s a helpful website for many researchers to not fall under auragengroup Scam.
Dear Smith C,
We are confident that we do not have any previous collaborations with you
Please do not spread false news if you haven’t experienced our service
We have clearly mentioned that it is a speaker’s right to choose a conference to attend
We didn’t mention that researchers are fake but we mentioned that people utilizing speakers names and spreading false news about us
Also we mentioned that people blogging or commenting here are with their fake names
And finally we have mentioned that we are conducting conferences under the supervision of practicing doctors
As far as we didn’t receive any complaints from our attendees
Thanks
🙏
I received information from Meetings International that were complementary and specific to my expertise. However, I continued to ask questions and the emails/Linked In contacts that began frequently diminished to nothing and my questions and emails were never responded to. I was so gratified to find your site through my online research into this company and did, in fact find them listed as fraudulent. My suggestion is as old as the hills; “If it seems too good to be true…it IS!” check as thoroughly as you can and do not be taken in by compliments, and by all means DO NOT submit your credit card information or any currency exchange!! They also contacted me days before the ‘supposed’ “Webinar/Conference” and I could not find out any information about this conference online!
I was curious is there any registration id or something that can put forward genuinty of a conference that we can refer ?
ADDENDUM TO ABOVE COMMENT:
Just to reinforce my comment regarding Meetings International, after not receiving any correspondence from several emails, I received a message via Linked In stating the following; (the person who is signified as the ‘Worldwide Program/Conference Manager’ for Meetings International is the name at the top of the message that was cut-and-pasted verbatim here)
Stella Merina 12:22 AM
The experts’ interview needs to be filled after the completion of the webinar. Kindly submit your abstract to our email address (stellamerina@gmail.com). We will send you the acceptance letter within 48hrs. The registration fee is 199 Euro for the webinar.
Their “Webinar” from Berlin is supposedly on March 24th, 2022 (tomorrow) and they had originally stated that all submissions needed to be confirmed by March 22nd.
Clearly this is incongruous with any professional criteria for “experts” in any given field.
I am following this up here to further illuminate that anyone should be extremely vigilant in investigating any company that asks for payment from an individual whom they requested to be a speaker.
I started to get suspicious after receiving two invitations to different conferences with the same email text, including high appreciation for my recent publication…. (I must admit that it boosted my ego at least for a couple of minutes). The source is on your list. Thank you!
Pride conference, they are the worst. they postponed the conference I was supposed to attend and took my registration fees.
I want to ask for any experiences with conferences from Scientificcrew. I recently got their offer to go to a conference in Boston, however, the company is based in India. And because they send an invitation to one of my postdoc; therefore, my abstract is accepted easily without any reviews. I’ve never been to any conference before, thats why I hope someone could help me verify this company. Thank you !
@DOUNG please dont believe its a predatory organization- Scientificcrew
Mscholar conferences are the predatoryconferences and it’s a sister organization of scinentificfederation: https://www.mscholarconferences.com/
Mscholar conference websites have been blocked by my university as a phishing website, according to my research it has been established recently by Deepesh Reddy who is just graduated and spamming scientists, the address listed as Rhode Island and California is fake too. Mscholar conferences are the Dark Side of Predatory Conferences. It is located in Hyderabad, India, don’t believe and don’t waste time on these conferences. t is yet another way to suck people into paying for Mscholar events
I don’t have any fear to write this comment, being an employee there in Mscholar private limited, it’s such a worst company where they can index the conferences in 3rd party websites and collect the data of scientists and spamming them and sucking them for conference registration. Nobody knows the subject and they are worst at the subject knowledge and they organize conferences by spamming researchers, wow such a predatory conferences they are organizing and I appreciate them for recruiting the employees and spamming researchers and they never pay salaries in time, its sure an Indian Hyderabad company and don’t believe the M scholars Private Limited, please remember these things and never attend the predatory mscholarconfreences.
Inovine are thieves. They canceled the congress in Valencia and he did not refund the congress fee or hotel fee. They keep promising, but that’s where it ends. I warn everyone against them.
Here are two scammers too.. be careful
wrfer.org
http://iser.co
I was just contacted by a group called Global Scientific Guild, googling around for which brought me here!
Same! I am a clinician with a fledgling consulting career and I was like… I know I’m pretty cool– but not “speak at a conference in Rome” cool
Same. Did you speak at their conference?
Hello everyone
I actually paid for one of the Pride Conferences and have the receipt of the payment
Can anyone help me to undestand how can I put them in justice? The thin is that I’m from Brazil, but I do want to do something about it
Does anyone know if Ciencie Research is legit?
Hi Gillian, I could not find anything about this organization, can you provide me with more details or a website so I can check out this organization? Thanks, Esther
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=666894615467675&set=pb.100064414282767.-2207520000.
The international organisation for education and research seems extremely suspicious.
https://www.ioer-worldresearch.org/call-for-paper/
The agenda is not clear, key note speakers are called Dr, even when the doctorate is an even more suspect honorary doctorate.
An exercise in self promotion?
Is MedEd Meetings holding predatory conferences? I was planning to attend their World Nephrology Congress, but I found the page highly suspicious.
Hi, I will attend Meded Meetings WNEC 2023 World Nursing Education Conference. It is cancelled. Are Meded meetings reliable?they did not respond
At least from the way they’re spamming, I can say it’s not a reputable/quality meetings organizer. Their website as per December 2023 is far from a well-managed one, with stock image not from their real meetings documentation. The PIC is not a real person (using common names like Charles Johnson or something making it difficult to check their credibility). Combined with their ridiculously high registration fee for the quality, I’d say it’s almost predatory/bogus. The type that will easily abandon their promise from the brochure.
What can you tell us about : https://xpertsmeetings.org/ ??
Xpert meetings looks like a fake meeting organizer
I registered one of their conferences before and the website looks good even with photos of the panel speakers and invited speakers. The on-site conference was cancelled about two months before the event and the organizer claimed that they would organize a virtual one. I asked for a refund of my registration because the virtual one is supposed to be less expensive. The organizer refused a refund so far. I tried to ration with the organizer and will keep it posted about the progress.
There are many participants who paid the registration fees for participation and accommodation at ELOPS2023 (https://elops.org/), which was to be held in Barcelona on September 25-27, 2023, and the “organizers” sent us an email saying that it will no longer be held on-site due to “less participants” (although we paid fees for online support site). What’s worse is that the accommodations were also paid through Xperts Meetings (https://xpertsmeetings.org/) and we asked them to make the reservations (because we already paid for them) but without any answer. What can be done in such situations?
I suspect that Industry events running multiple “conferences” in Budapest Radisson Blu Beke Hotel, Budapest, on the same dates……
Euroscicon took hafty fees by temting for being a speaker and with hotel accommodations for international pediatric conference art Barcelona, spain in aug 23, 24, 2023. They declared that they have converted the physical conference in to a webinar format due to unforeseen eventuality. On inquiry at the hotel Novotel, it was also not booked, for conference event as well as for our accommodation by euroscicon team.
it is absolutely bogus team by projecting Spandana Roy as program director. I trusted them. They promised to refund fees but even after three months they did not return fee. I am cheated by this fraudster scammer. I have informed as an international cyber crime case through interpol. I shall see that there will be lock on such ponzy predator conferences.
World Research Forum for Engineers and Researchers (WRFER) and International Society for Engineers and Researchers (ISER) are not the fake organizers. I have attend 3 International conferences in London, New york and Dubai last year. There are absolutely large conferences with speakers from WOrld’d reputed universities.
One more big predatory and scammer here: Albedo Meetings
https://albedomeetings.com/
I am a nutritionist, and they inviting me for engineering conference, what a shame, the bud of Scientific federation it is, scammers, predatory meetings
thanks Karol for the post, its useful
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Warning_about_Albedo_Meetings
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Albedomeetings_Scam_Conference_Organizers_Fraud
Albedo conferences Predatory, rename of Scientific federation Scammers
Many thanks for the information! I may have been trapped by Xpert Meetings until I noticed they were eager with getting my picture and bio than replying my questions.
I’ve received an invitation from Times Scientific Group to be a guest speaker at their event in Dubai. The things that sound legitimate to me were:
1. They provide physical address, phone number, and email
2. Their website sounds somewhat professional
3. They sent an email to my professional email address which I rarely use in public forums and seems like someone has referred me as the topic is in my area of expertise.
4. The date of the event is 3rd October. Normally, scammers make you act fast by providing tight deadlines. Their email did not ask for anything that would make you act faster.
The red flags are:
1. Their physical address is in IL whereas the area code of the phone number is Texas (or it could be a mobile number from Texas)
2. Google map shows an empty land near a park when I searched their physical address
3. To download their brochure, they ask you to fill out a form with your name, email address, country, and phone number. The brochure being a promotional material should otherwise be widely circulated
4. They don’t have any picture gallery of their events. Generally, such organizations put these pictures on their front page to present their success stories. So, it seems like they never had any actual event.
Has anybody received something similar or has experience with Times Scientific Group?
Hi Mohib,
I agree the Times Scientific Group looks like a total scam.
Esther
I just got an invitation from “European Meeting on Applied Science and Engineering” to be a speaker. I thought it might be interesting because my work is about inclusion in software engineering, and people should care about inclusion across disciplines. When I checked the website, I found some interesting things. There are no women on the committee, and there is only one committee. It’s the Science Committee. The program has no times. The website is https://scisynopsisconferences.com/applied-science/, but the email is from speakersmeetings.com. There is no venue, only a city. They say, “Abstract acceptance will be intimated through Email & WhatsApp.” Beware.
Hi Ali,
Thanks for bringing this one to my attention.
It is definitely a scam. I contacted one of the ‘committee members’ and he was definitely not amused.
Esther
I confirm, it is a scam, they obtain our emails from the contact we provide once we have published the first article.
I’d like to caution against an organization called “United Scientific Group” (USG). Their first call for abstracts looked interesting, with well-known speakers, and when I started doubting the seriousness of that event, I had paid the conference fee, so I went.
The organization was pretty bad: The representative of USG hardly spoke English. The final program (also surprisingly announcing the last day would be held only online ) was sent around 4 days prior to the meeting. Posters were hung up on the wall of the meeting room, partly below the paintings hanging there….
About 25 people attended this “Global conference on Environmental Science and Technology”. Luckily, there were some interesting people who had also fallen for the conference title, so it was not a complete mistake to have gone. Does anybody have similar experiences with this group or am I being unfair?
United Scientific Group (USG) is indeed a predatory meeting organizer. One of the founders, Dr. Sudhakar Yakkanti, is described here https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6856005/ The other, Kenneth Blum, is more of a quack. USG is a sister organization of the predatory organizations OMICS and Prism.
Are you truly Ms. Esther van de Vosse, or are you representing someone who is attempting to discredit others as scammers?
are axiom meetings predatory ?
I think so. I see a lot of red flags. For example: organizing two conferences on totally different subjects on the same dates at the same location. And: not having a venue secured for a meeting that is only 5 months ahead.
Is sciencenet.co predatory?
I was wondering if https://c2pforum.com/ are also a predatory organization. One of their upcoming meetings advertises bona fide people (https://structuralbiology.c2pforum.com/). Yet the rest of the information seems highly suspect, and their website is blocked by my institute.
They are definitely predatory. Fake names, WhatsApp in the message footer, shady website, many conferences at once.
Has anyone had experience with ACME Meetings? I believe it is a scam company, but I am still peeling the layers back…
A few of the things I’ve encountered:
– They have multiple events in the same city at the same time, but no precise event location posted (only a city name). All of their events in February were postponed
– Their registration portal registered me for the wrong event (not user error), and I’m getting the run around regarding transfers and refunds. Their terms and conditions changed after I registered
– The URL of the event website has changed, and so has their contact email
– They “postponed” the event we were looking to attend from April to December
– Social buttons on their website don’t go to anything and the bios/headshots look off…
– They say they are CPD verified, but I’m having trouble confirming this
I have not seen any other posts about this company in my search, but I hope by posting this, no one else will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars and get nothing for it! :(
https://acmemeetings.com/meetings.html (in particular International Meet on Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery & Drug Delivery)
I agree with you, this is a predatory conference organizer.
Inovine Meetings LLC, is predatory medical conference organiser.They have very rea looking website, contact no, brochure, ans many photos of speakers and paste testimonials. Beware of all the conferences organised by Inovine.Examples are
6th World Congress on
Pediatrics & Neonatology
August 04-05, 2025
ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel Narita, Tokyo, Japan
USA: +1-408-648-2233
India: +91-9989609377
What’s app: +1-437-887-9176
24 × 7
I was contacted by a lady named Eva Brown on behalf of the 2nd World Congress on Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine scheduled in Bangkok, Thailand. She contacted me via WhatsApp, which already raised red flags. Then emailed me and sent along the programme as well as the universities affiliated with them. Not going to lie- I was slowly being convinced its real. It would have been my first international conference :(
Also part of the Inovine Conferences
I am a bit not sure, but it also looks fake. genvioconferences
I came across Precision Global Conferences online (https://www.precisionglobalconferences.com/index.php), do you know if it’s a reputable academic organizer, or does it have traits of a predatory conference?
Hello everybody,
Has anyone had experience with “theiconicmeetings.com”? I believe it is a scam company, but I am still hoping…
A few of the things I’ve observed:
– They have multiple events in the same city at the same time in the same location (4 different conference)
-yesterday I saw an attempt at a program that made me think and I wrote them a message. in 5 minutes they replied that it has turned into a webinar and that we will receive more details soon. I then asked them what those who had booked accommodation, transportation for the conference were doing? if we get money back because the fee included lunch, coffee break, etc. no answer since then. if we go there we will find ourselves in front of a receptionist who has no idea about the conference in his hotel? if we present the papers online are we talking to ourselves or is someone still listening to us?
thank you!
Hi! Any updates on this? My abstract recently got accepted and my talk will be on November. Thank you
I have questions about two conferences from two different organizations. Both are in my field of microbiology so it makes sense to have contacted me to speak (e.g. it is not a cancer meeting). They are both covering my registration and hotel for 3 nights.
One of them is called World Summit and Expo on Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (WSEMID2025). The website is:
https://microbiology.synergiasummits.com
The other is called the International Conference of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (MICROBIO2026). The website is:
https://meetings21.com/microbiology
What abous meetings21? I would like to know.
https://meetings21.com/material-science/home
Hi everyone,
I haven’t come across the concept of predatory meetings till now – when I saw weird invitation from https://microbiomecongress.org/index.php.
I’m of course full of doubts, but most of my rational thinking tells me this must also be a fake.
It seems to be organized by organization called Sciinov. Maybe I’m wrong, but felt like I should put it out here, in case someone else also has doubts and searches for the name.
Greetings
Hi Simona, yes a quick scan of their website and conferences indicates this is most likely a scam. I will add it to the list.
Is Magnus group predatory. They cancelled their event in March 2025 and asked me to transfer my registration fee to the one in September 2025. Now they are telling me it will be virtual and I need to switch to one of the conferences happening on the same venue.
Hi Thandeka, thank you for sharing! Magnus Group was already included in the list of orgranizers of predatory conferences, and your experience illustrates why.
hi! how about Precision Global Conferences? https://www.precisionglobalconferences.com/
does anybody know about pubscholar group? they have upcoming conference in neurology?
https://srcmeetings.com/international-conference-on-artificial-intelligence-and-cybersecurity-home-icaic.php
does this look like a predatory conference?
I do not have much experience with these
I recently received an invitation via LinkedIn to submit an abstract for an international conference organised by Inovine Conferences. The link provided is: https://nursingeducation.inovineconferences.com/index.php
.
Before proceeding, I wanted to check how I can determine whether this invitation and conference are genuine or potentially predatory. Could you please advise on the best way to verify its legitimacy?
https://nursing-conferences.org/submit-abstract.php
Apologies, wrong link was provided earlier.
I was contacted on LinkedIn asking to take part is this upcoming conference https://genderstudycongress.com/edition2/index.php.
I sent in an abstract as requested and after a few days it was approved and I was asked to register for the conference. US$499 to present at this conference, that’s when I decided to do some research and came across scam conferences, I didn’t even know this existed. I feel so stupid, but I’m glad i didn’t pay the money.
what about Utilitarian Conferences UCG in Dubai? I have the feeling they are a scam too.
I think this is also a predarory conference site:
https://eurasiaweb.com/
If in doubt, I usually ask whether travel expenses and subsistence costs are refunded for an invited lecture.
When only a reduction in the registration is offered, I know enough. Is faster than submitting a fake abstract.
If they do reimburse all the costs and the conference is still rubbish, at least I have a nice holiday.
MEETINGS21 seems to be a PCO that schedules predatory conferences.
I got an invitation to be a keynote speaker at the “International Congress of Chemical Engineering and Catalysis” (CHEMENG2026) that was supposed to take place for 3 days in Lisbon/Portugal. That invitation was from a Ms. Rosie Ghanta (“Conference Secretary, CHEMENG2026 / MEETINGS21”). I accepted the invitation, sent my information / a photo for the conference website / an abstract. However, when I wanted to organize the travel to Lisbon earlier in 2026, the conference website (https://meetings21.com) had disappeared, and Ms. Rosie Ghanta no loger responded to e-mails. So either the PCO (MEETINGS21) went bankrupt without ever notifying anyone, or – and that is actually my suspicion – this was a predatory conference, where the “organizers” tried to decorate their website with pictures and CVs of a few famous speakers, cash in registration fees from some unsuspecting participants, and then disappear with the money they made from the registration fees. I had no financial loss but possibly a number of other less cautious people did.