To all our valued exhibitors, please beware of phone and email solicitations claiming to be affiliated with IBEX. Each year we hear about phone and email scams cleverly disguised as official IBEX business. Be smart, and check with us before you give your company credit card information over the phone. Clues that you are dealing with a possible scam are:
- the person can't pronounce "IBEX" properly
- they demand immediate payment, or must have your credit card no later than 5:00 p.m. today!
- the call is from a foreign number, or blocked.
- the return address is from a foreign country.
Hotel solicitations are common so here is an easy preventative measure. Book your room NOW through the ONLY official IBEX 2015 hotel provider, the Louisville Convention Bureau. Anyone else who calls, or emails you is a scam. Click here to go to hotel page. My advice to you is book your room now, and just hang up on all future hotel calls.
The annual mail scam to be on the lookout for is a group called Expo Fair Guide. This scam requests you update your IBEX / Professional BoatBuilder information for a "free pre-registered directory listing." A return envelope with a pre-affixed airmail stamp and a return address to a foreign country is included. The foreign address is your first clue that this is not a legitimate IBEX, PBB, or NMMA product. These offers can be VERY deceiving, and many exhibitors have fallen prey to these groups who then harass you for payment of the ridiculously high hidden fees offered in the small print.
When you receive a questionable offer claiming to be IBEX, please take a moment and contact anyone on the IBEX team by sending a quick email or making a phone call to confirm it is legitimate. Click here to view the IBEX team contact page.
-Anne Dunbar, Show Director
