5 Ways to Spot a Fake Medical Conference

The “predatory meeting,” a term coined by Jeffery Beall, exploits early and career academic researchers, scholars, and other healthcare professionals into attending conferences organized by profit-seeking companies. These dubious CME medical conferences are not that easy to spot, and so it is worth a little bit of research to confirm whether it is genuine or not before you book your next CME conference.

Doctors and other healthcare providers are required to complete continuing medical education (CME) to maintain their medical licenses & certification and to learn about developing areas of their field. A healthcare professional is bound by law to maintain these credits to continue their practice. Unfortunately, a growing number of predatory, or fake, conferences are on the rise. Often these organizations claim to be affiliated with other reputable publications, pharmaceutical companies, and universities.

The web layout of these international CME conferences may seem very legitimate initially but on the second look, you will notice small discrepancies. Today at eMedEvents we are laying out 5 ways to spot a fake medical conference you should consider before confirming your registration for any CME medical events.

They are as follows:

Any invitation through social media: Any legitimate conference organizer will send you an email regarding their upcoming conferences rather than relying only on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Any formal invitations are sent via email these days, though sometimes there are also bogus emails. We recommend you scan through the user profile, photos, and description to validate the sender’s existence and reputation.

Bogus emails: Yes, that next amazing CME medical conference could be a bogus one. The important things you need to check are the sender of the email, the subject line, relevance to your specialty, email content (specifically check for spelling errors,) and organization’s name. A little bit of googling never hurts and we recommend you check online to see if the organization has any articles, blog posts, or other forms of negative review about them before you consider registering for any conference.

Publicity on social media: Verify if these CME medical conference organizers have Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles, as well as their own website. Check the quality of content on these posts, pictures, timeline, frequency, and variations. Also, verify if any of your colleagues or known associates from your field are following them and if they have commented on these conferences, posts, etc. The conference website should give you proper details about the organization, conferences, and past events. Be sure to look for small infractions on their website content, abstract papers, and descriptions for the conference and speaker panel. If the abstract does not match the specialty then the chances are good that CME medical conference may be a scam.

Registration Fee: Another interesting method to spot a fake conference is to notice the price tag it has for attending the event. How does it compare to similar conferences by reputable organizations?  If it’s your first time attending a conference, then ask your colleagues who have experience in your field for their input. However, if you are familiar with CME medical conference pricing then you might be able to spot the fake conference that has an exorbitant price tag.

Location: When you get the invite for the conference check the location and cross-check on the same site to see if the same location is listed for other conferences on a similar date. These bogus conferences often claim to have several conferences at the same place and date. It is also always a good idea to call the hotel or resort to confirm the details of the conference.

In addition to these ideas, you could cross-verify the submission date, conference date, editorial committee, journal creditability, archives, and program details. If the information is not present or is vague then it might be a fake conference.

You can also read more ways to know how to spot a fake medical conference on eMedEvents blog here.

At eMedEvents, we are the one-stop-shop for continuing education, career, and networking for all healthcare professionals.

eMedEvents hosts the largest database of Continuing Medical Education events worldwide. Search by speaker, conference Organizer, Specialty, and Location. Find the eMedEvents app on your smartphone as well and organize all your CME on the go!