Dear AOPA Exhibitors and Members:
Being vigilant and even suspicious to protect our personal, credit and other information is part of living in this digital age. Doubtless, many O&P manufacturers already have noted that this year has seen an extraordinary number of what appear to be bogus offers of making the 2017 AOPA World Congress Centennial Celebration registration list with emails available for a fee. These offers are being made by multiple providers, all unrelated, and unknown to AOPA. We have shared these offers with AOPA’s legal counsel and if further investigation indicates fraud has been committed, this matter will be vigorously pursued to protect AOPA members from any harm.
The World Congress and annual National Assembly registration lists are always made available to those exhibit managers who make the request. Our lists each year includes all of the necessary contact information for hard copy mailings but only provides email addresses for those registrants who grant AOPA permission to share their email address. This year about 300 individuals granted permission for their email to be shared with you.
This email is to inform you, and anyone who may have received these unsolicited messages regarding AOPA attendee lists that: (1) AOPA does not have a Gmail address; nor (2) has AOPA ever generated email messages seeking to sell our registration list; and (3) to notify all recipients to be alert should you receive any message in the name of AOPA seeking payment, credit card or similar financial information.
Claims made by vendors who have contacted you are likely fraudulent. A very good example is the email made available to AOPA today by one of our exhibitors that read as follows that is signed “Organizing and Conference Manager” with AOPA’s street and zip code, intending to make you think the email came from AOPA, which it did not:
“From: XXXXXX
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 7:37 AM
To: AOPA Member
Subject: Email Attendee List For 2017 AOPA
“Post-show Attendee List Order:
“2017 AOPA(The American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association)
September 6-9 | Las Vegas, NV
How to Order the Attendee List:
:Reply to this email –
“If you are interested in acquiring the attendee list for post event follow up emailing. Questions regarding the list; all questions will be answered in writing over this email. No phone calls please. All orders are to be placed through this email. No attendee list orders are going to be placed through faxes, phone calls, so please don’t do this. After the Show: This could be the most important tip of all: Write the blast and send it out to post-show attendee list. List will include: Attendee name, email, title, address, phone, company name and location. Number of names in list is: – 2,200
“Thanks,
Organizing & Conference Manager
John Carlyle St., Ste.
Alexandria, VA 22314, USA”
Despite displaying a facsimile of AOPA’s mailing address, and misrepresenting the sender as an Organizing and Conference Manager, this sender has NO affiliation with AOPA. It is easy to place misleading, even fraudulent information on the internet—please beware such messages are false and misleading.
*Security Note: AOPA does not send any text/email to persons seeking to sell lists of any kind. We invoice members annually, and we notify folks of our meetings and products. If in doubt, we welcome you to call our office before you provide any credit card, or other transaction/payment information.
The only truly valid post show registration list is available FREE to requesting exhibit managers and includes about 300 emails of registrants. To get your copy of the list directly from AOPA, we request that you fill out the Exhibitor Survey.
Again, we suggest you beware of other offers!