FAM-Scamming
March 2008
Did you Know
We’ve all been in this situation: you’re on a FAM trip with several other meeting planners, having a wonderful time, but there’s just something off about one of the other guests on the trip.
There’s just something strange going on and you can’t quite place what it is. Well, there’s a good chance this person is part of a group that costs hotels and CVBs millions of dollars every year—FAM scammers. It may come as a surprise (or little surprise at all) that there are people out there who pose as professional meeting planners simply for the potential benefit of going on a sponsored familiarization trip.“About five to eight percent of those out there on FAM trips are actual scammers,” explains Niki Clarke, director of research, International Conference and Incentive Travel Research, Inc. Clarke, known as North America’s toughest qualifer of international hosted buyer programs, has come across a diverse range of these scammers and says that a large percentage of them do it on a fairly regular basis, getting all the more savvy with each trip. Recently, Clarke conducted a presentation in New York on FAM-scamming, teaching her audience how to identify scammers by asking specific questions relating to past and future booked events. Whenever the audience thought that the scammer was being disingenuous, or simply felt that something was amiss, they would blow whistles that had been passed out to them beforehand.
The trick is that not all of these scammers are the unemployed, young or reckless types we might imagine them to be—quite often they are employed at real companies, or even are the owners of companies. They will have business cards, work e-mail addresses and dress and act professionally. However, the scammer might be the company secretary posing as someone who makes buying or planning decisions, or the legitimate head of a company that is misrepresenting his company as one that holds off-site meetings.
According to Clarke, the problem began 20 years ago, when North American hotels, airlines and CVBs were under a lot of pressure just to fill beds and seats. “Back then, all you needed was a business card to get on board [a FAM trip],” she says.
Today, things are not so lackadaisical, yet the process of approving legitimate planners for trips has not evolved. Clarke says many (domestic) CVBs and hotel sales executives are still too nervous about confronting planners with a few qualifying questions. “Any self-respecting independent event planner should not have a problem identifying his or her client,” she says. So, if you want to be sure no one eyes you suspiciously—as well as help eradicate the problem of FAM-scamming—just keep handy a few contacts that can corroborate you are the real deal. If this practice of verification eventually becomes the norm, scammers will simply have no where to hide.
For information about Clarke’s services and presentations, e-mail her at info@icr-research.com.
