We are strongly advising our exhibitors, advertisers and subscribers to be vigilant against bogus organisations who do not represent the good name developed within the exhibitions and publishing industries.
The European Parliament has adopted a report by Simon Busuttil MEP to combat the widespread and concerted pattern of misleading business practices, which is affecting thousands of businesses. Click here to read EU Pariliament Report (A6-0446/2008).
Mercator Media Ltd does not permit third parties to undertake unsolicited mailing to our customers. In particular we have received complaints about misleading practices from Inter-fairs, Fairguide, International Fairs Directory (formally Expo-Guide) and Construct Data.
If you receive any suspicious communication regarding Mercator events or publications, we suggest that you do not progress the conversation any further, and that you contact us immediately to inform us of the approach. ON NO ACCOUNT SIGN OR FAX BACK ANY FORMS. Beware entries into show guides:
- Typically this scam involves sending exhibitors a misleading form, which resembles an organiser’s Free Catalogue Listing Service, inviting exhibitors to sign and return the form for an entry in an on-line directory. Doing so contracts the purchaser into the three-year, non-retractable agreement. Non-payment is then followed by aggressive debt collecting.
- An example of one such guide is Fairguide and more recently International Fairs Exhibition, formally known as Expo-Guide. Unfortunately, these two are not the only threats to exhibitors and visitors.
Beware bogus hotel booking agencies:
- This scam offers discounted accommodation. They take exhibitors’ and visitors’ money and don’t deliver the services they claimed. Click here to read more from the Association of Exhibition Organisers.
Beware bogus invoices for magazine subscriptions:
- We have been notified about a scam involving emails (typically from ‘construct-data.net’) with an invoice in Euros demanding payment for subscriptions to one of our publications.
Further information and next steps:
If you believe you have already been duped by Fairguide, you might find the following link useful from The AEO (Association of Exhibition Organisers). https://www.aeo.org.uk/expoguide
StopECG - http://stopecg.org/ This is a non-commercial website that contains background information about Fairguide, ExpoGuide, etc, and the petition that led to the EU Pariliament Report (A6-0446/2008).
