How I was nearly conned by a predatory conference

By Aaron Milavec

16 Nov 2024

 

It all began three weeks ago.  I received an email inviting me to be a presenter at a conference in San Francisco scheduled for 10-11 March 2025.  This conference was planned by Sciinov as the 7th gathering on the topic of “Gender and Sexuality.” In examining the presenters and topics of earlier conferences, I was encouraged by the professional tenor of former conferences.  My first clue that something may not be right was the fact that over 80% of the presenters were women.  The second clue was that the venue had not yet been chosen; hence, the cost of lodging was not disclosed.

The planners asked me to send a title and an abstract of the topic that I wished to present.  Here is what I sent them:

Submission to the 2025 Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference

10-11, March, 2025 | San Francisco, CA, USA

 

Aaron Milavec

Research fellow with the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research

Title: What to do when someone says, “God limits marriage to the union of one man and one woman.”

Purpose: To demonstrate that you don’t have to have a degree in theology to outwit someone who tries to shut down all further discussion by playing “the religion card.”  My presentation will use role playing to illustrate how to gain the confidence of your adversary and to open up little known aspects of biblical interpretation.  You most probably will turn your adversary into a lifelong friend.

Biography: Aaron Milavec began his career as an innovative teacher and oral story teller.  After devoting twenty-five years to the training of future priests and lay ministers, Milavec turned his attention to creating online courses in gender studies and the empowerment of women.  Milavec has gained an international reputation as a leading interpreter of the first-century text known as the Didache.

He has published eighteen books, eight chapters in collected works, and seventy journal articles.  His two most recent books are occupied with the graced power of human  love: The Red String Chronicles (2017) and What Jesus Would Say to Same-Sex Couples (2019).

Professor Emeritus, Catherine of Siena Virtual College  [Now located at Roehampton University in London]

Dr. Susan Albert, the chief organizer, sent me a brief notice of how selections were to be made:

How it works:

Our abstract management tool is an online platform that allows authors to review their submitted proposals (abstracts) for inclusion in the conference programme. Authors will receive their login credentials for the tool through mail after submission.

After submission and review is [sic] finalized, it would be the task of the committee to decide which abstracts to accept for inclusion in the conference programme. Abstracts may also be sent back for amendments if amendments are required by the authors [sic].

Here is the third clue that something was amiss.  The text shown says, “After submission and review is [sic] finalized. . . .”  One would have expected, “After the submission and review are finalized. . . .”  Likewise, the text shown says, “if amendments are required by the authors.” One would have expected, “if amendments were required by the committee.”

Ten days later, I was issued an official letter of acceptance.  It looked very professional.  I tried to post it here for you to see, but this was blocked by the software designers.

Only at this point were the details of the financial cost of registration disclosed:

Early Bird Ends on March 29th, 2024
Oral Presentation (In-Person) $699
Oral Presentation (Virtual) $449
Poster Presentation (In-Person) $449
Poster Presentation (Virtual) $299
Listener (In-Person) $7499
Listener (Virtual) $199
Student (In-Person/Virtual) $349

At this point I was certain that I was being scammed. In instances where a person is invited to speak at a conference, normally an honorarium of $699 would be fitting.  In this case, however, I was being asked to pay $699 in order to make my presentation.

Meanwhile, those who came to the conference without making a presentation, their conference fee was $7499.  What!?  No one in their right mind would consider this as an acceptable cost.

So, I did some online searching.  Here is what I discovered:

What are Predatory Conferences?

Predatory conferences are usually small and for-profit. In addition, they exploit an academic’s need for recognition or an audience. Moreover, recent data shows that predatory conferences now outnumber so-called legitimate conferences. Contrary to what most academics believe, not all predatory conferences are small, poorly-organized, and organized by fly-by-night organizations. In order to ensure that they make profits, a decent organization is usually set-up. One telltale sign of a predatory conference is that low-quality research is often presented alongside research by famous academics. However, there are various other signs as well.

How do Predatory Conferences Work?

These conferences often obtain money from researchers and may consist of hundreds of conferences organized at once. BIT Life Sciences is a known organizer of predatory conferences and sends emails to academics from various fields all at once. These companies have made huge profits out of scientific budgets and scientists’ blind ambitions to present their papers. Such conferences aim to earn money from those willing to pay for conference fees and the costs associated with open access publishing. Predatory conferences are nothing more than moderately well-organized events that promise researchers recognition after they pay a hefty fee. URL=https://www.enago.com/academy/tips-identify-avoid-predatory-conferences/

I just did a HypeStat.COM analysis for Genderstudycongress.com and discovered this:

Visitors by country

Country  Users%

Finland 51.23%

United States 47.10%

South Africa 1.0%

Alas, this tells the truth.  All the participants outside of the USA and Finland NEVER CAME TO THIS SITE.  So 90% of the claimed participants would have to be fake participants.  Their bios were stolen.  They have no knowledge that they have or will have participated in any of these so-called congresses.  Take this case:

Marian Dias {02:30 PM – 03:00 PM CET}

CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Bangalore, India

Title:Media Discourse on Sexuality-Unraveling Bisexuality Representation in the Film ‘Cobalt Blue’

I was curious about her since I previously taught online courses at Christ University.  Sure enough, she exists.  And so does her topic.  Yet Marian Dias never visited Genderstudycongress.com to see that she has been selected as a presenter.  When I contact her, she will tell me something like this, “The whole thing is a hoax!  These people never contacted me. The topic assigned to me is entirely unknown to me.  I have no plans to be a presenter in their congress.”

Enough said.

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