Sunday 22 March 2015

OMICS Group strike again with more scam conference spam

I am always wary when I receive an email that begins something to the effect of:

Dear Colleague,

The purpose of this letter is to solicit your gracious presence as a Speaker at the upcoming 5th World Congress on Cancer Therapy on September 28-30, 2015 which is going to be held in Atlanta, USA.

Soliciting my gracious presence smacked of an OMICS Group “predatory” conference invitation. The rest of the email went on:

The aim of this conference is to learn and share knowledge in cancer research. Leading World cancer researchers, Public health professionals, scientists, academic scientists, World Breast Surgeons, Medical and Surgical Oncologists, Radiologists, Researchers, Healthcare professionals, Industry researchers, Nurses, Scholars, Decision makers, Students and other professionals gather in Atlanta to speak at our conference.

Exceptional Benefits

All accepted abstracts will be published in the respective Journals
Each abstract will receive a DOI provided by Cross Ref
Certification by the organizing committee
Global Exposure to your Research
Best Poster Competitions and Young Researcher Competitions
The Career Guidance Workshops to the Graduates Doctorates and Post-Doctoral Fellows
Networking with Experts across the globe

For more details on scientific sessions and abstract submission, please Click Here

In closing, we would be pleased and honored if you would consent to be our speaker at our Conference.

I will call you in a week or so to follow up on this.

Regards,
Isaac Bruce
Cancer Therapy 2015
2360 Corporate Circle
Suite 400 Henderson
NV 89074-7722, USA
cancertherapy@conferenceseries.com

The thing I find most curious is that there is not direct reference to OMICS Group anywhere in this information: they don’t even name the “respective Journals”, which are presumably OMICS journals as with their other conferences. The address and even the email address are equally opaque.

If you do “Click Here” then you go to an abstract submission page with the “OMICS International” logo and some OMICS Group references/email addresses but even here they opt not to use an omicsgroup.com URL.

This does not strike me as the behaviour of an organisation that is proud of their brand. Indeed, I suspect that they know that their brand is toxic thanks to their reputation for predatory journals and conferences and thus try to lure people to submit an abstract (with a hefty $899 registration fee) before they realise their mistake.

The only other clue was the line hidden at the bottom in small font:

You are subscribed to OMICS Group as XXX. If you do not wish to receive any further communications, please click here.

Suffice it to say that I clicked there.

11 comments:

  1. Just received the same, Apr2016. No mention of OMICS, and no 'you are subscribed...' message.
    Thanks for hosting this. It's good to have somewhere to confirm your suspicions about these things...
    ----------------------------
    Dear ###,
    Greetings from Molecular Medicine 2016
    We are pleased to invite you to Orlando Florida, USA for “2nd International Conference and Exhibition on Molecular Medicine and Diagnostics” going to held on September 26-28, 2016. It is an honour and privilege to invite you to participate as a Speaker for this conference. We believe that your contribution to this topic will be very beneficial.
    Molecular Medicine 2016 is an event that provides a platform to researchers, doctors, physicians, therapists, surgeons, trainers and students to share and gain knowledge of the advances in the field of molecular medicine and therapy.

    For further details kindly visit http://molecularmedicine.conferenceseries.com/

    Benefits for the Speaker:
    All accepted abstracts will be published in the respective Journals

    Each abstract will receive a DOI provided by Cross Ref

    International Speaker Certificate

    Special Publication discount benefits as a conference attendee

    Live Streaming of Speaker’s talk


    We would be glad to answer any questions you may have and provide necessary clarifications where needed. We look forward to your confirmed presence at Orlando, Florida USA.

    With Best Wishes,
    Sincerely,
    Shayna Dion
    Molecular Medicine 2016
    2360 Corporate Circle
    Suite 400 Henderson
    NV 89074-7722, USA
    Tel: +1-702-508-5200 Ext: 8062
    Fax: +1-650-618-1417
    Email: molecularmedicine@conferenceseries.net

    ReplyDelete
  2. Had a very similar experience with tempting offers to speak at some vague conference. they even promised me return airfare from India. Luckily experience has made me wise and I did not register at the so called discount rate of 899 dollars

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very similar experience with an invitation to "Clinical Chemistry 2016". E-mail address clinicalchemistry@insightconferences.com and conference website in the .conferenceseries.com domain.

    A whois query for conferenceseries.com gives an interesting answer:

    Registrant Name: Srinu Babu G
    Registrant Organization: OMICS International
    Registrant Street: 5716 Corsa Ave, Suite 110 Westlake, Los Angeles CA 91362-7354, USA
    Registrant City: Westlake
    Registrant State/Province: Los Angeles
    Registrant Postal Code: 91362-7354
    Registrant Country: US
    Registrant Phone: +16.506189889
    Registrant Phone Ext:
    Registrant Fax:
    Registrant Fax Ext:
    Registrant Email: support@omicsgroup.net

    ReplyDelete
  4. If scammers weren't making money the scam would stop. What does it say about the marks, presumably educated to a higher degree than the average Joe even if in a field not correlated to the communicated pretense, who facilitate the ongoing criminal enterprise?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In my experience, it's a combination of naivety (there was a time that it never occurred to me such things could exist), laziness/business (it often looks legit at first glance), convenience (right time, right place to fit in with other plans) and having conference names that are very similar to genuine respected conferences. It is true that most people do not have that unfortunate combination upon receiving an email - and hopefully less and less as the word is spread - but I suspect they don't need many fresh victims to cover their costs.

      Delete
  5. Hi Richard! I want to ask some questions about OMICS and conferenceseries, do you mind if I contact you to email/iMessage? Because me and my friend wanna attend the conference and we feel something weird. I hope you reply this. Thank you! Have a nice day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problem. Google my name and UNSW and you'll find my email.

      Delete
  6. I am pleased to inform you that we are Organizing a international conference On Sustainable Energy named "International Summit on Sustainable Energies", which is going to be held during Oct 23-24 in Orlando, Florida USA.

    This is something I received recently on LinkedIn. Can you tell me if this is a genuine conference and if I should go for it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably not. If it's not held at a university (or research institute), organised by a scientific society, or involves people you know, I wouldn't go. Talk to your mentors in the field and find good conference suggestions through them.

      Delete
  7. (That should be "...NOR organised by a scientific society, NOR involves people you know...")

    ReplyDelete
  8. Another fake conference:
    2nd International Conference on Atomic and Nuclear Physics
    November 08-09, 2017 at Las Vegas, USA

    Actually, I was invited "in light of your renowned research and your contributions to the article "name of my article"...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment! (Unless you're a spammer, in which case please stop - I am only going to delete it. You are just wasting your time and mine.)